Excelsior Correspondent
BHADERWAH, Feb 12: Members of Forest Protection Force (FPF), Doda here today in an early morning swift action seized a dump of many deodar sleepers that were illegally extracted and hidden inside a snow-covered structure in Chiralla Range of the Bhaderwah Forest Division.
The operation followed credible intelligence which led to the recovery of the finished deodar wood/sleepers of different sizes commonly referred to as ‘deodar sleepers’ as they were cut from a remote snow-bound building owned by Riyaz Ahmed, resident of Tanta area in Tehsil Kahara, village Ganori, Forest Division Bhaderwah.
The timber as per sources belonged to Babber Nafice of village Ganori.
FPF officials said the timber had been extracted from protected forest zones in violation of Indian Forest Laws as well as Supreme Court of India directions and was intended for illegal trade.
The sleepers were seized on the spot and handed over to local forest beat guard on Sapurdnama and will later be transported to the nearest forest depot (Bhaderwah) for legal proceedings.
A formal case has been registered against the property owner under relevant sections of the Indian Forest Act, 1927, which prohibits unauthorized felling, possession and trade of forest produce.
The FPF is conducting further investigations to identify other members of the timber extraction network.
The entire operation was carried out under the direct supervision of Assistant Director Forest Protection Force, Satish Singh Manhas and monitored by Deputy Director Forest Protection Force Doda, Mohinder Singh Jamwal. Other team members of FPF were Farooq Wani, Omesh Kumar, Wasin ul Rehman, Daljit Singh Manhas and Abdul Karim.
The exact number and count of the seizure couldn’t be elicited as the counting and measuring process was going on till late night and may continue even for tomorrow.
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