Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 15 Mar: Environment & Forests Minister Mama Natung has sought cooperation from all sections, including the legislators, panchayati raj members and community-based organisations, to make Arunachal Pradesh an ‘airgun-free and chainsaw machine-free’ state.
Responding to Borduria-Bogapani MLA Wanglin Lowangdong during the zero hour discussion on the action taken report on illegal felling of trees in the Deomali forest division in Tirap district, Natung said, “The government and the forest department alone should not be depended on to check this illegal timber logging. From the department’s end, we are putting all our efforts. The stakeholders like community-based organisations and panchayati raj level should also play their roles in protecting our forests.”
He informed that the forest department and its guards are protecting the forest in Deomali round the clock. However, he admitted that a few cases of undetected illegal logging were reported.
The minister further informed that the staffs of the Deomali range division and the Borduria range detected 898 round logs and a few labour camps during a combing operation which was carried out from 11 to 16 January, and as preventive measure, all the entry and exit points in the area have been blocked by digging trenches and the labour camps have been destroyed.
He further informed the house that the operation of at least nine wood-based industries (WBI) has been temporarily suspended by the Deomali chief conservator of forests (CCF) as part of the action taken.
“As per the detailed physical verification report submitted by the Deomali CCF on 28 January, 2022 to the PCCF office, no illegalities were found in the WBIs,” he said.
Natung also informed the assembly that the state’s forest department will soon convene a meeting with its counterpart in Assam for evolving a mechanism to check rampant illegal felling of trees by timber mafias in jungles along the boundaries of the two states.
Raising the issue during the zero hour discussion, Lowandong sought to know about the detailed action taken report and the mechanisms taken to curb illegal timber operation in the Deomali reserve forest area.
