By RIPUNJOY DAS
The illegal trade has flourished for several years now despite a Supreme Court ban, primarily because of the absence of an effective and cohesive joint mechanism between both states.
Sources said most of the illegal timbers are felled in the hills and forest reserves in Arunachal Pradesh during the winters and kept ready for the rainy season.
“As the rains start, the logs are tied up in rafts and sent down the river with well trained hands in the business accompanying these rafts. Once these rafts reach the destination down in Assam, they are cut into pieces and processed in the illegal bench-saw mills,” a source said.
“Generally the species, which are being brought through this illegal channel, are meckai, teli, chopa, goonsorai, simul, azar, hillock and others, which grow in plenty in the evergreen forest belts of Arunachal Pradesh,” the source added.
“We have proposed a meeting with forest officials of Arunachal Pradesh very soon to discuss the issue. We will have to develop some mechanism. After all, it has to be Arunachal Pradesh which will have to take the first step to curb the illegal trade since it all starts in their territory,” divisional forest officer (DFO), Dibrugarh, Anurag Singh, said.
The additional principal chief conservator of forests (timber) of Arunachal Pradesh, M. Namchoom, while welcoming the proposal from Assam regarding discussions on the issue, denied that Arunachal Pradesh is lax towards curbing timber smuggling. “Blame game will not help solve the crisis. We will have to form joint action teams in the bordering areas, most of which is covered by water, to curb the problem,” Namchoom said.
Illegal timber business is a subject, which many do not wish to discuss, though it has affected the green canopy of the region to a large extent, because of the allegations of involvement of the timber mafia, politicians and a section of corrupt and unscrupulous senior officials of the forest department.
During the winters, timber smuggling goes down considerably as it is difficult to ferry the consignments on rafts across a dry Brahmaputra. Timber smugglers prefer the river route.
However, with the advent of the rainy season and the Brahmaputra in spate, the entire focus is back on the illegal trade.
Indeed, the scale of illegal timber business has been gauged by the volume of timber being seized by the Dibrugarh territorial forest division headed by Singh during the past couple of years.
During 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11, the division seized around 4,600 logs and earned around Rs 70 lakh for the state government when sold through tendering after being confiscated.
The market value of the timber is likely to be around Rs 1.5 crore.
“During these three years, we have also arrested around 50 people involved with the trade and confiscated more than 35 bench-saw mills,” Singh, an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer, said.
The DFO of Tinsukia wildlife division, Vaibhab Mathur, another IFS officer, said since the beginning of this year, his division seized around 240 logs, which were being illegally ferried in rafts across the Brahmaputra.
The logs were later handed over to the Dibrugarh territorial division, which is the competent authority for such hauls.
“Seizures are fine but it cannot be the end solution to the problem. To bring about a permanent solution we will have to have a cohesive policy between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh so that we can put an end to the illegal trade,” Singh said.
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