Yusmarg (Budgam): Illegal timber smuggling in the midst of the pandemic in the Nagbal area of Yusmarg has become a cause for worry for the local communities as well as environmentalists in Kashmir.
Yusmarg, a pristine tourist resort nestled in the Pirpanjal range, about 48 kms from the capital Srinagar and 17 kms from Charar Sharief, is known for its dense forests and high eco-tourism value.
According to local residents and environmental activists in the area, timber smugglers in the area are using the area’s remoteness, inadequate official supervision and now the lockdown conditions to smuggle out timber from the Pirpnajal forests through newly-created makeshift tracks and sell in nearby villages and towns.
Local residents say that owing to the checks on main roads, smugglers have invented new ways of smuggling.
“They create make-shift roads in darkness even through milkiyati lands so as to park the truck platforms at sites where from they can easily collect timber transported on horses”, locals say.
A group of local and non-local journalists who recently travelled in the area produced videographic and photographic evidence from the Nagbal area which shows at least four tracks having been illegally created through milkiyati lands to push the truck platforms deeper in the forest area and transport timber from there.
“We need a check on the tipper platforms that are used in transporting the timber. There are several such tippers used in connivance with officials from various departments, mainly Rural Development and R&B Departments, who coordinate in creating tracks through ownership (milkiyati) lands using MNREGA funds to facilitate the smuggling”, locals said.
There are several instances of inflated bills being generated for public works in the area to facilitate this transportation.
When contacted Range Officer, Tariq Nazir, Divisional Forest Officer, Pir Panjal Division said that the extraction of timber in the area was being carried out by the State Forest Corporation and that it was being done with due permission.
When asked that the transportation activity was mainly being carried out during night time using private tipper platforms, he denied that any activity is being carried. “We permit transportation only from dawn to dusk and not during night time”, he said.
Territorial Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Mohammad Ashraf Katoo, while denying any illegal transportation of timber in the area by private individuals, said that the legal timber transportation is being carried from kachcha roads to pakka roads with permission and that they have issued release orders for the same to be carried from forest areas to PLP even during night time. This contrasts with the version from the Range Officer of the area.
While the visiting journalists’ team found evidence that official timber extraction was being done of mainly marked logs with proper documentation, they found several instances, including local anecdotal accounts, how timber smugglers were using private tippers and mules in Nagbal areas for illegal extraction and transportation at night using clandestine roads.
Several environmental groups have appealed to the Deputy Commissioner Budgam and Chief Conservator of Forests, Kashmir region, to take note of this modus operandi and save forests in the Pirpanjal area from further plunder.
Anuja Churi and team contributed to this report.
