ITANAGAR, Nov 5: In a first-of-its-kind high-level meeting held here on Thursday, senior officers of Arunachal and Assam’s forest departments resolved to strengthen coordination and intelligence-sharing efforts between the two states to check illegal cross-border smuggling of forest products.
Expressing concern over cross-border illegal movement of forest products, particularly from Arunachal to Assam and outside the Northeast, the forest officers of both the states agreed to strengthen the coordination between forest officials at the field level, particularly in the boundary areas, and to take measures to protect the forest wealth of both the states through intelligence and information-sharing in real time.
The meeting also decided to hold half-yearly coordination meetings of the PCCFs and quarterly meetings of the CCFs alternatively in both the states, along with regular meetings at the division and the range levels.
The forest officers of both the states present at the meeting felt that periodic coordination meetings would build confidence and develop bonhomie between the officials of Assam and Arunachal, besides providing opportunities for sharing ideas and strategies.
The team of Arunachal’s environment & forests department was led by PCCF RK Singh, while the officers from Assam’s forest department were led by PCCF AM Singh.
