[ Indrajit Tingwa ]
MIAO, Nov 18: Nampong Forest Division has suspended the functioning of Wood Based Industries (WBIs) until further orders.
The contractors of Miao-Kharsang area have sent an appeal to the concerned authorities to reconsider the decision of suspending the operations of the WBIs as the preliminary report has clearly stated no illegality involved in the case.
The contractors stated that as per their knowledge, Nampong Forest Division was the top revenue generator out of the 28 forest divisions in the state and suspending the operations of the WBIs, which are operating legally, will amount to loss for the state revenue as well as affect the livelihood of the local indigenous populace, who are directly or indirectly dependent on the WBIs.
As per the preliminary report of the logs seized on November 9 last, it was found that the seized logs were all under girth in the 90-120 cms range and generated from the privately owned land of one Thuing Singpho purely for domestic requirements, such as firewood.
This was revealed during interrogation of the truck owners, informed Divisional Forest Officer of Nampong Forest Division, Chuku Loma.
The report stated that Thuing Singpho is legally in possession of a plot of land measuring about 20 hectares and the logs were transported from the said plot of land to the private residences of the four individual owners of the seven trucks.
The logs have been seized and transported to the Forest Range Headquarter at Namphai for safe custody.
Further, Nampong Forest Division ACF, T Soki had been entrusted to investigate into the case, including verification of all the WBIs records and physical stocks. The preliminary report states that while the submission of ACF report is pending, it appears there has been no illegality involved in the case as the origin of the logs is from a private land owned legally by Singpho and the logs were transported under her full knowledge for domestic requirements.
