TURA: Illegal tree felling and smuggling of timber from the reserve forests of Garo Hills continues to be a menace in the forested region of East Garo Hills with forest authorities once again seizing two cars laden with sawn timber on Tuesday night.
The focus of the timber smugglers gang have been the Rongrenggre (Williamnagar) and Darugre (Rongjeng) reserve forests which happen to be the last remaining green zone in this part of the state.
State forest department patrol teams intercepted two Maruti 800 cars that were each packed with around a dozen logs of freshly sawn wood from the Darugre reserve forests.
The smugglers had tried to push in the maximum number of timber into each of the vehicle by removing the seats and covering the consignment with a blanket. On being checked it was found that there were no documents or papers to justify the transit of the timber. One person accompanying the consignment has been detained by the authorities.
Following a clampdown on the illegal trade with frequent patrolling and frisking of trucks and buses, smugglers have begun to improvise using small vehicles to avoid detection.
“They are now using Tata Wingers, Sumos and small cars to ship out small quantities of the timber. This is done mostly during the late hours of the night and early part of the morning. If you find a Winger on the road late at night coming from the Darugre region you are bound to find hidden timber inside,” reveal forest patrolling personnel.
A few months ago, patrolling forest personnel spotted two Wingers playing in the dead of night on the isolated Rongjeng to Songsak road. The Assam based vehicles were stopped and on checking found a huge number of sawn timber neatly packed from the floor up to the window well concealed with plastic sheets.
Another mini truck was found packed with timber which the smugglers had concealed by filling the top with bags of vegetables to avoid detection.
Despite the best efforts of forest personnel to contain this menace, timber smugglers continue to make attempts in view of the high demand for wood in neighbouring Assam.
