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| Smuggler, forest official nexus wreck havoc in North Kashmir forests | | | Syed Tahir Bukhari
BARAMULLA, Oct 8: In north Kashmir's Baramulla district, the precious forest wealth is damaged and looted not only by locals of few villages but astonishingly on majority of instances by those who are supposed to be its guardians which reveal that concerned officials are in nexus with these smugglers which is of a great concern for one and all.
According to sources that smuggling of timber is made possible through the use of ponies and load carriers. Axing down the trees is so common there that the practice has started triggering landslides in Limber and Pringal area of Uri tehsil and all these negative developments are taking place seemingly under full official patronage especially these forest officials.
Bashir Ahmad of Shahkote Uri alleges that during last few years of turbulence, thick forests of Uri were wantonly plundered by timber smugglers. The concerned officials were prevented from doing their duties due to the presence of militants in the forests and their frequent armed encounters with security forces.
"There are many villages like Limber, Pringal, Bemiyar, Pheslipora, Chahla and other areas which are completely involved in forest smuggling and they are taking advantage of that situation, smugglers illegally harvested and sold huge quantities of timber in and outside the state for handsome rates he said.
A group of youth told Early Times that we raided the place and seized forest timber that was dumped illegally by smugglers. We were surprised to see scores of green trees lying on the ground. Smugglers had chopped off these trees surely for the purpose of smuggling. We did our job and accordingly informed the Department of Forest. They added that the illegal timber smuggling has now become a daily routine of these forest smugglers which needs a conscious attention from the district administration at the earliest.
It is pertinent to mention here that during the year 2011-2013, 21.37 lakh plants have been planted under Compensatory Afforestation Management Plan Authority (CAMPA) forest scheme, while as 32.14 lakh plants and 14 lakh plants were planted up to December 2013 under the scheme for ensuring afforestation in the State. "Besides plantation operations have also been carried out by Social Forestry Department (SFD), State Forest Research Institute (SFRI) and Wild Life Protection Department (WLPD) which goes around 6.33 lakh and 1.46 lakh plants planted during 2011-13.
A senior official from forest division Uri wishing anonymity told early times that, "This is a matter of serious concern and we would initiate a thorough probe into this. However he added and said that I will bring this serious matter into the notice of DFO and other concerned officials.
I assure you that whosoever is found guilty would be accordingly taken to task, strict action would be taken against anyone found guilty in this matter he said. |
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