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Teak smuggling rampant
The rampant smuggling of teakwood in the district has posed a grave threat to the forest cover. The thick forest cover in Pembi, Rajura and other places is slowly disappearing to the greed of wood smugglers. According to a study, the area under forest cover in Adilabad has come down from 7 lakh hectares to 5.5 lakh hectares due to illegal felling of trees of teak and other wood species by the smug
​Adilabad: The rampant smuggling of teakwood in the district has posed a grave threat to the forest cover. The thick forest cover in Pembi, Rajura and other places is slowly disappearing to the greed of wood smugglers. According to a study, the area under forest cover in Adilabad has come down from 7 lakh hectares to 5.5 lakh hectares due to illegal felling of trees of teak and other wood species by the smugglers over the years.
According to sources, teakwood worth Rs 3-5 crore is being smuggled out every day from the district. The illegal felling of teak trees is quite high in Adilabad, Khanapur, Ichoda, Boath, Jannaram, Kubeer, Kaghaznagar and other places. Smugglers engage able-bodied workers by paying huge daily wages for cutting down trees in the deep forest.
Power saws are also used in some places for cutting the teakwood. After felling of trees, the logs are illegally transported in tens of trucks to the predetermined destinations. It is a known fact that the smugglers pay huge amount of bribes regularly to the forest officials manning the check posts to allow the trucks carrying teakwood to cross the district borders.
If any honest official tries to resist smuggling of teakwood, the smugglers do not hesitate to attack him to carry out their illegal trade without any hindrance. Fearing attacks, some of the forest officials have remained mute spectators to the unabated smuggling of precious teakwood from Adilabad forests, say the sources.
There is a widespread criticism that Forest Minister Jogu Ramanna who hails from Adilabad, has failed to protect the rich forest wealth of the district during the two-year rule of the TRS government. Expressing his concern over fast dwindling forest cover in the district, nature lover Vijay underlined the need to take effective measures to rein in the teakwood smugglers. The Preventive Detention (PD) Act should be invoked against notorious wood smugglers to protect the forest wealth, he said.
Sainath, another environmental activist, said the Forest Minister should take strict measures to tame the teak mafia before the extinction of the precious wood species from Adilabad forests. Speaking to The Hans India, District Forest Officer (DFO) Thimma Reddy said shortage of staff was a major hindrance to contain the smuggling of teakwood and other forest wealth. Notwithstanding the staff shortage, the forest officials seized teakwood worth Rs 93 crore from smugglers between 2004 and 2016 and as many as 63,196 cases were registered against those who indulged in smuggling of teakwood and other forest products.
According to official figures, though the number of cases registered against wood smugglers increased after the TRS came to power in Telangana but the value of wood seized from smugglers declined. The PD Act was invoked against two wood smugglers. Expressing his resolve to protect the forest cover in Adilabad, the DFO said: "We will curb smuggling of teakwood and other forest wealth with an iron hand."
By:T Anjaiah
