Hoshiarpur:- The team of the Forest Department, Hoshiarpur, acting on the instructions of Forest Officer Sanjeev Tiwari and DFO Dharamvir Dheru, has busted a gang of thieves stealing Khair wood from Patti government forest and seized a vehicle full of Khair wood. The thieves escaped from the spot taking advantage of darkness and weapons. The incident is said to have happened around 3 am today.
The department has prepared a report in this regard and sent it to the higher authorities, while also writing to the police for action in this regard. Giving information, Forest Range Officer Jaspal Singh said that he had received information that thieves were illegally cutting trees in the forests of Patti, on which he formed a team based on divisional officers and guards and instructed them to take immediate action.
During the blockade and patrol in Patti, the team saw this vehicle coming from the road leading to the forest near the liquor shop and signaled it to stop. There were about 4-5 people in the vehicle including the driver and they also had weapons and as soon as they got down, they started abusing the Forest Department team and tried to attack. Meanwhile, when the Forest Department team revealed their identity, the tree thieves left the vehicle on the spot and fled taking advantage of the weapons and darkness.
He said that the team took possession of the vehicle and about 27 Mochha Khair wood was recovered from it. Regarding which action has been taken. He said that the driver has been traced and his name is Suleman. The search for the others will also be done soon.
He said that the wood thieves have destroyed the forests a lot and they are continuously stealing wood, to strictly stop which, special checkpoints are being set up by forming teams on the instructions of the senior officials of the department and patrolling has been intensified. He said that action is also being taken regarding the theft of khair in the forests of village Dada in the past and the thieves will not be spared at any cost.
It is worth mentioning that for a long time now, illegal felling of Khair and other valuable trees has been taking place in the government forests and Kandi areas of Hoshiarpur, Dasuha, Pathankot and Garhshankar and despite the efforts of the Forest Department, the thieves are succeeding in their plans, because the Forest Department team that patrols or checks by setting up checkpoints has nothing except a register or torches and on the other hand, the tree thieves have weapons like pistols in addition to sharp weapons and due to political influence, they get away with damaging the forests.
A few years ago, a team of the department was attacked by timber thieves at Chak Sadhu in Hoshiarpur and during that time, the team was saved due to the bravery of a driver of the department, who was later honored by the administration. Now it remains to be seen how many more stringent steps are taken by the department to stop the increasing theft in the forests.