Crackdown on forest mafia in J&K, timber worth lakhs seized

In a crackdown on forest timber mafia, police has recovered around 45 timber scants besides 25 felled young green cedar worth lakhs of rupees in Bhaderwah valley of Doda district, an official said.
Approximately 45 timber scants beside 25 felled young green cedar trees worth several lakhs were recovered from a village in Bhaderwah belt during a raid yesterday, Superintendent of Police (SP) Bhaderwah Roop Raj said.
No arrest has been made so far as the smugglers managed to flee from the area, Raj said.
The timber extracted from the green Cedar trees was illegally cut from nearby forest Compartments No- 49 and 51 of Puneja block and was being shifted and kept at villages Runta and Halyan, he said.

A case under section 6 of Forest Act 379 RPC has been registered here, he said.
He said the crack-down on forest mafia to stop illegal deforestation will continue and appealed people to co-operate and come forward to save the forest wealth of the area.

He also assured media persons of full co-operation for exposing the illegal logging of cedar trees by forest mafia.
The crackdown was launched by police after a complaint was made by a local photo journalist, who clicked pictures of the loot of green gold in Runta-Halyan in Puneja block of Bhadarwah Forest Division and was attacked by the smugglers. He was thrashed and his camera was broken.

When the question about the timber smuggling going on in Bhaderwah forest division was posed to Conservator Chenab Circle M M Gupta, he said that he has already passed on directions to the concerned forest division.