Renewed tree felling inside Upper Dehing RF

DIBRUGARH, June 15 ? Even as the Forest department is busy ?evicting encroachers from reserve forests?, timber smugglers appear to be having a field day in the expansive Upper Dehing reserve forest, under the Digboi forest division. Dozens of valuable ?hard wood? trees have been felled ? illegally of course ? in the past few days. The Supreme Court has banned tree felling in the Upper Assam districts, but this means nothing to the miscreants. Several illegally felled trees have been rolled into the swollen Buri Dehing river, a little upstream of Joypur (near Naharkatia). These are mostly concentrated near the place called Sitakunda. Some of the felled logs have been seized by the Joypur range forest officer. Eyewitnesses said not less than 50 high value trees have been felled inside the Charaipung area of the Upper Dehing reserve forest. Meanwhile, there has been no progress of work on the notification of the proposed Joydehing Wildlife Sanctuary, which would comprise the Upper Dehing, Dirak and Joypur reserve forests. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had announced late last year that the notification process would be expedited. Since then, the Principal CCF of Assam has sent the preliminary queries but these have been stuck at the Conservator?s office in Jorhat, and are yet to reach the DFOs at Digboi and here. It is argued that with the notification of the sanctuary, tree felling can be contained as the new entity would afford more Forest staff and equipment for better patrolling. It is alleged that some saw mills have already begun clandestine operations inside Arunachal Pradesh following the Assam foresters? preoccupation with the ongoing eviction operations. Nature lovers here and in Tinsukia have expressed surprise at the sudden spurt in illegal tree felling in remote locations, which is a flagrant violation of Supreme Court instructions. They have appealed to the Assam Forest Minister, Pradyut Bordoloi to initiate deterrant action.