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Timber-smuggling racket busted at Jaigaon
Cooch Behar (WB), Nov 28: Forest Department officials have unearthed a timber-smuggling racket after conducting a raid at a furniture manufacturing unit in Jaigaon near the Indo-Bhutan border in Cooch Behar district yesterday, official sources said here today.
Cooch Behar (WB), Nov 28: Forest Department officials have unearthed a timber-smuggling racket after conducting a raid at a furniture manufacturing unit in Jaigaon near the Indo-Bhutan border in Cooch Behar district yesterday, official sources said here today.
Three persons were arrested in this connection and produced in Alipurduar court today, divisional forest officer Kalyan Das said.
A case has also been lodged against one H N Prasad, owner of a saw-mill allegedly being run illegally within the premises of the furniture manufacturing unit, he said.
Eight truck-loads of sawn timbre and furniture worth Rs 14 lakh were seized during the raids, which lasted for 13 hours, he said.
The DFO said Jaigaon had become a den of timber-smugglers of the region and indicated that a joint action force might soon be set up by the Cooch Behar forest division and the Jalpaiguri district administration to evict them.
Altogether nine saw-mills including the one hidden in the premises of the furniture manufacturing unit at Jaigaon were dismantled after the raids yesterday, Das added.
Das said investigations so far had revealed that a timber-smuggling racket had been thriving in Jaigaon. After illegal felling of trees in nearby forests the logs were sawn at the mills in Jaigaon.
While the finished furniture was sent to Bhutan, the sawn timber was transported to Kolkata and other places including Kishanganj in Bihar in trucks, Das said.
Bureau Report
Three persons were arrested in this connection and produced in Alipurduar court today, divisional forest officer Kalyan Das said.
A case has also been lodged against one H N Prasad, owner of a saw-mill allegedly being run illegally within the premises of the furniture manufacturing unit, he said.
Eight truck-loads of sawn timbre and furniture worth Rs 14 lakh were seized during the raids, which lasted for 13 hours, he said.
The DFO said Jaigaon had become a den of timber-smugglers of the region and indicated that a joint action force might soon be set up by the Cooch Behar forest division and the Jalpaiguri district administration to evict them.
Altogether nine saw-mills including the one hidden in the premises of the furniture manufacturing unit at Jaigaon were dismantled after the raids yesterday, Das added.
Das said investigations so far had revealed that a timber-smuggling racket had been thriving in Jaigaon. After illegal felling of trees in nearby forests the logs were sawn at the mills in Jaigaon.
While the finished furniture was sent to Bhutan, the sawn timber was transported to Kolkata and other places including Kishanganj in Bihar in trucks, Das said.
Bureau Report