Suhail Bhat
Srinagar, Apr 16: The forest cover in Goriwan forests at Zandfaran in Sheeri area of North Kashmir’s Baramula District is dwindling owing to ineffective regulatory control by Forest Department.
An alleged nexus between timber smugglers and tainted forest officials has led to felling of trees at an alarming rate in nearly 7-8 kilometre stretch forest cover at Zandfaran. The areas falling under compartment number 4, 5 and 6 once used to be thick with pine and deodar stretched down to the Valley but it has been wiped out now. The half burnt tree trunks and rotten logs are the only traces left.
Locals accuse Forest Department of being in league with the smugglers and said that they aid and abet smugglers by not keeping a round-the -clock vigil on smugglers thereby letting them a free spree.
“They mostly operate at night and early morning hours. We could easily hear the piercing sounds of tree falls during night. No one is stopping them. Forest officials hardly visit this area and why would they visit? They get their share of money. They are making huge money out of this”, Manzoor Ahmad, a local said.
Locals at Gujjar Pati, a tribal village, nestled between the forests, said that some of the local axe men who chop off trees work in tandem with the Forest Department. These axe men after chopping the tress in “C” zones ferry them illegally to “A” zones where they sell it.
“They easily sell it in Baramulla illegally without any checks. They usually transport the logs on specially trained horses,” a local said, adding “A handful of smugglers are earning a bad name to our villages”.
A forest official who doesn’t want to be named said some of the corrupt officials with political affiliations have not been transferred for last decade and they are the real menace. “They don’t allow honest officials to settle so that they could keep looting the green gold,” he revealed.
Environmentalists said that this illicit cutting of trees has snatched the habitat of several wildlife animals which has led to the man- animal conflict. “It has also dented the ecosystem and thereby hindering the sustainable development”, they said.
Divisional Forest Officer, Irfan Ahmad, when contacted said: “We have already send a team comprised of forest protection force and rangers who are camping there for last three days and there have been no such reports.”
When asked about the systematic felling of trees and the corruption within the Forest Department, he said, “These are all baseless allegations and I have no idea about the half cut tree trunks. There is no such report with us. The entire area is clean.”
Chief conservator, Nissar Ahmad, rubbished the claims of any nexus and said that two separate wings, Forest Protection Force and Territorial Force who conduct regular day and night patrols have been commissioned for the job to control the menace.
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