Two held for felling teak trees illegally at Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary

GUWAHATI: The Forest officials on Friday arrested two persons for illegally mowing teak tress at the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary in the Patarkuchi area. The accused - Gautam Rahang (40) and Magleshwar Kathar (31) were caught red handed with machine saw and some other equipment while felling trees inside the sanctuary. The duo hails from Kakar village in Sonapur.

Talking to The Sentinel, Range officer of Khanapara Wildlife Range Nayan Jyoti Das said, "In the last few days they felled numerous valuable timber inside the sanctuary with machine saw. But today we were able to arrest them under sec. 9,27,29,30,31,32 of Wildlife protection act, 1972 (Assam amendment 2009). It is an organized crime connecting various timber smuggling network and the arrests will surely affect the entire gang."

The investigation is underway to nab the rest of the members of the gang, Das added.

In another operation, the officials recovered 4 logs of Sal tree worth around Rs 15,000 from an abandoned Maruti Omni van at the Jarasal reserve forest in the Assam-Meghalaya border. The timber smugglers managed to flee the spot and the seized vehicle has been brought to the Rani Forest Ranger office.

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