Timber travails

CONCERTED efforts by officials of the
Kamrup East Forest Division have
shown encouraging results in containing large-scale illegal felling and trade
of valuable trees in reserved forests
along the Assam-Meghalaya border.
Every alternate day, the forest officials
patrol the border and conduct frequent, sudden raids in suspected villages inside and outside the reserved
forests. The arrest of the criminals and
the subsequent seizure of illegal logs
and timbers, alongwith elephants,
trucks and bullocks hired for transporting the logs, has dampened the spirits
of the smugglers. The suppliers of elephants and trucks now think twice
before lending their elephants and
trucks to smugglers for fear of being
confiscated.