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| Illegal timber trade flourishes in Basohli, forest area shrinking | | | Arun Trisal
KATHUA, June 24: Up in arms against the shrinking of forest cover, the general public of Basohli while registering their resentment on illegal cutting of trees demanded an enquiry into the reasons behind the reduction of 'green gold'. Speaking to the media, Kuldeep Singh, Raj Kumar, Shamsher Singh, Dheeraj Kumar and Partap Singh said that timber smugglers are on rampage in Basohli as illegal cutting of forest trees is growing with each passing day which exposes the tall claims of Forest Department of protecting forest cover and to deal sternly with the forest wood smugglers fall flat.
The either sides of the Basohli road can be seen easily full of frequent heaps of cutting trees or logs which found unclaimed, they added.The people said that the practice of cutting trees illegally is not a new phenomenon; in fact it has been occurring since long. According to the law, the forest department first issues felling order and then put records of the felled tree in a logbook, the locals said adding, however, Forest officials are not taking serious notice on this long running illegal tree cutting as no check has been seemed to be made to stop this by the department so far and left the smugglers remain encouraged to keep the practice continue.
For such illegal cutting of trees is a common practice for which both wood smugglers and Forest Department have a deep nexus to carry out such practice. They further claimed that records are not maintained and logs are illegally transported. This is done with connivance of some forest officials. |
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