[ Karyir Riba ]
ROING, 10 Aug: As many as 250 dressed Khair logs (Acacia catechu) were seized from the Balijan-Dongku area in a joint operation conducted by the Lower Dibang Valley (LDV) and the Lohit police, along with forest officials from Lohit, on Sunday.
The operation was conducted following receipt of inputs regarding rampant illegal trading and theft of Khair trees from the area.
During the operation, headed by LDV DSP Ringu Ngupok and Lohit DSP Sange Thinley, a partially loaded long-platform truck (AS-23AC-1842) was found at the spot, and a Mahindra Bolero (AS-23V-9100) was found at a distance of about 100 metres from the truck.
The police informed that these vehicles were used mainly for illegal collection and transportation of Khair logs from the Paya reserve forest in Sunpura range.
The logs were seized and transported to the government forest depot in Paya (Sunpura).
A case [u/s 379 IPC r/w 25 (d) AFR Act] has been registered at the Roing police station.
As per the police report, no one was arrested in connection with the offence as all those involved had already fled the spot before the arrival of the police team. Efforts are on to trace and arrest the accused involved, informed the police.
Theft and illegal trading of Khair trees have been rampant in the area since long, causing loss of several crores of rupees in revenue for the state government.
Earlier, the All Mishmi Students’ Union had tried to draw the attention of the officials concerned towards the menace. However, not much has been done to curb the menace.
