Timber smugglers are active in Maira Mandrian in connivance with Forest officials

Illegal cutting of trees and smuggling!
Timber smugglers are active in Maira Mandrian in connivance with Forest officials
*They use Tractor-Trolley to transport the wooden billets from interior to Timber Yard (Taal) and then they carry on tata 207 or Trucks or other vehicles.
*The owner of Timber Yard (Taal) of Maira Mandrian is also involved in the timber smuggling to other parts and he should be must grilled.
*The timber smugglers are so shrewd that they keep the law of land on their tenterhooks and some Forest officials are standing with smugglers.
*It is the local people who caught the tractor-trolley carrying the illegal wood and all credit goes to people and as such the Forest department is concerned it seems only a mute spectator.
Jammu, Apr 30:
The issue of cutting of trees in an illegal way in tehsil Maira Mandrian is getting complicated with each passing day, besides many skeletons are coming out from the cupboard of the Forest department as some officials are involved with the smugglers to smuggle the wood to other parts. The active role of owner of Timber Yard (Taal) is also surfacing and he is equally responsible for smuggling of wooden billets.
The trees were cut from state land and it was the forest department to grant the permission for cutting of trees especially of Khair and the reports pouring in the office are indicating that the permission for cutting the either not granted or granted but for very less in quantity. But the smugglers in connivance with Forest officials have tried to carry the wood.
The modus operendi of the smugglers is very strange, they use the tractor & trolley to carry the wood from the spot to Timber Yard as the Timber Yards are authorised to keep legal woods but the smugglers patronized by officials of Forest department use this method. Then they press other vehicles like Tata 207 or trucks or other kind of vehicles to carry the wood to the destination.
The smugglers sell the wood to the contractors on half rates ranging from Rs 2500 to 3000 as the rate of legal wood is Rs 4500 to 5000 per quintal. They use the permission like Form 25 to transport the illegal wood in a dramatic way. They keep the numbered wood above and the unnumbered woods under the heap so that it may hardly see.
On the several occasions smugglers have been caught the police deployed on check point and vehicles are seized then handed over to Forest department but mostly they cross the check point under the grab of permission of less wood.
It is pertinent to mention that in last few chances it has been noticed that smugglers have used the weekly lockdown as good opportunity to cut and smuggle the wood. The enquiring officials must grill the owner of Timber Yard oe Wooden Stack (Taal) Maira Mandrian. (I mean here Taal wala). The owner of Timber Yard of Maira Mandiran is completely involved in the smuggling of the wooden billets from Maira Mandirian to other parts of Jammu.
It would be in the best interest of the Forest department, if the case be handed over to Crime Branch or Anti Corruption Bureau to ascertain the fact and to take off the screen from this smuggling nexus. It is amply clear that without the involvement of Forest officials nothing can happen like this and it is the actual job to identify those officials who are employees of Forest department but working against the Forest.