From Our Correspondent
TURA, Dec 11: Members of the Garoland State Movement Committee (GSMC) and Garo Students’ Union (GSU), Zikku Balgra, on Tuesday intercepted a vehicle carrying illegal timber during a night vigil. The vehicle was caught while it was moving out of the Damalgre-Rerapara Reserve under South West Garo Hills.
The vigil by the groups against the illegal timber vehicles came following complaints from villagers that unscrupulous smugglers—both local and from Assam—were slowly denuding the reserve through their activities.
“We received information from villagers that timber was being felled from the reserve and got together with the GSMC to apprehend them. At about 11:30 am, we were able to apprehend one vehicle with sawn timber and without license plates. We later handed them over to the Tura range for further action,” informed GSU member, Gamgam Sangma.
Yesterday’s incident comes in the wake of another where a police team was almost thrashed and their vehicle damaged when they went to chase an illegal timber vehicle in the village of Phersakandi in West Garo Hills.
What is interesting is that in both cases, both vehicles had no license plates for clear identification indicating a clear operating module.
In the case at Rerapara-Damagre Reserve, there were apparently two other vehicles behind the first. However, they managed to escape during the melee.
Meanwhile, an FIR has been filed by the groups with the Tura Range office.
