Timber smugglers arrested, over 30 sal logs seized

From our Correspondent
KOKRAJHAR, November 24: The Kokrajhar Forest department along with Assam Police, SSB, and CRPF carried out joint operation against the timber smugglers at Jaharbari and Ultapani reserve forest Range on Tuesday and were able to arrest three timber smugglers along with over 30 sal logs from them. The arrested smugglers were identified as Khwsad Basumatary, Ani Brahma and Dilip Basumatary. Talking to media persons, Nikhil Chandra th, DFO, said that they received reports of stocking of large number of timber logs by smugglers in Jharbari area and they had been taking shelter at Jaharbari and Ultapani reserve forests for ferrying the logs. He said the joint operation was carried out to crack down the smugglers where over 30 sal logs were seized, besides busting 11 temporary camps of the smugglers inside the forests. He said some people were taken away by smugglers as labourers for felling trees and loading the logs. Most of them are young people. Dilip Basumatary, an arrested smuggler, said that they went to the forest for the first time to bring sal logs from dense jungle under Jharbari forest range. He also said that there were around 15 persons in a group to bring sal logs from the reserve forest of which three were apprehended by the forest department while others maged to flee.