TIMBER SMUGGLING
There have been lot of media reports in the recent past from various parts of Jammu and Kashmir about the growing incidents of timber smuggling despite lockdown and restrictions.
Recently district administration of Ganderbal acted when some videos went viral showing how in the forest compartment of Chettergul, green gold was been looted with help of forest officials. Initially one of the forest official who was seen in the videos was suspended and the government ordered a probe into this incident to fix the responsibility.
Many such videos have surfaced from various parts of Jammu and Kashmir indicating that forests were being looted by the smugglers at many places with the help of forest officials taking advantage of lockdown and disruption in life.
Timber smugglers have become very active as they are going inside the forests during the night hours and smuggle the timber out of the forests before dawn.
Police has the responsibility to check such incidents and save the forests from such degradation. Police can take help of informers in the villages to arrest these smugglers as they have played havoc with trees in many forest compartments in Jammu and Kashmir.
There is no denying of the fact that administration is busy in tackling with COVID-19 threat, but police and forest department cannot take the cover under the virus threat to give free run to the timber smugglers and play havoc with our environment.
