Taking the advantage of lockdown, forest destruction and illegal felling of valuable trees have allegedly been going in different remote areas of Assam’s Darrang.
In one such incident officials and staff of Mangaldai Forest Beat office acting on specific complaints have managed to recover many pieces of fresh hands sawn logs of valuable teak variety from the bank of historic Raja Pukhuri under Panbari Police Outpost .
The forest team on Saturday has seized these logs with the help of local police.
However, no arrest was made in this regard.
While talking to Northeast Now, one forest official in the operation not willing to be quoted said, “The logs seized with around Rs 50, 000 in market value has been carried to the forest depot at Kharupetia.”
Regarding early booking of the culprits involved in the illegal activity, the forest staff said, “We will lodge an FIR with the local police within a short time.”
It may be mentioned here that due to lack of necessary preservation by the government, the illegal destruction of forest and other natural resources of this historic site has occasionally been reported in recent times.
In the same manner, few months back forest staff seized several pieces of logs of valuable tree variety while police from Dhula Police Station has investigating a case (No 206/18, u/s 468 /471/379/427 IPC) registered in this regard.
It is worth mentioning that looking at the ample tourism potentiality, the tank covering an area of nearly 137 bighas has already been included in the Assam Darshan Scheme for its scientific preservation and beautification.
In this connection a Guwahati based private agency namely Luit Valley Engineering Pvt Ltd has recently conducted a field survey reportedly as per the direction of the State Tourism Department.
The nature loving local conscious people have demanded early implementation of the tourism scheme as well as protection and preservation of the natural flora and fauna surrounding the historic tank.