Illegal timber-laden truck meets accident

From our Correspondent

KOKRAJHAR, June 8: A timber-laden truck bearing registration no AS-18/C-0722 tumbled down NH-31(C) after the driver lost control at Basangaon near Karigaon in Kokrajhar district on Tuesday evening.

Forest officials said that the truck laden with valuable non-sal logs worth over Rs 3 lakh, lost control and fell down on the tiol highway. Forest department has seized the logs. The departmental official said that the logs were brought by smugglers from the BTC forest. However, no smuggler was arrested as they fled the scene after the accident.

The local people alleged that smuggling of valuable timber was common as the smuggled log- laden trucks pass through NH-31 (C) almost daily but the department does not take action.

Just about two weeks ago, a truck laden with sal logs hit a divider of the tiol highway in the same place. The smugglers were not found on that day but the smuggled sal timbers were seized. These two accidents in the same place have proved the regular passing of illegal timber-laden trucks but the department can seize the logs only when accident occurs despite the fact that the department has a number of check gates.