Assam: Several Injured In Anti-Timber Smuggling Op At Meghalaya Border

A 23-year-old man and several forest department employees were injured in an altercation with timber smugglers in the Umjakni range in Assam’s West Karbi Anglong district.

Amit Thapa, 23 years old, has been working as an informant for the forest department for long, officials said. He was seriously injured in the attack by the smugglers during an operation of the forest department against the illegal smuggling of highly valuable trees.

According to Gokul Kumar Majumdar, a forest guard at Umjakini range, Habang, timber smugglers from Meghalaya run an extensive racket smuggling trees from Assam. Majumdar further mentioned that they are understaffed and called for urgent reinforcements to prevent such illegal activities.

He said, “On November 17, we received information of illegal activities and readied an ambush with home guards, and other staff. We were stationed at a location along the state border from 8 pm and at around 11:30 pm, they were about to leave having looted the timber. We were armed with sticks only and there was not much we could do. Yet we tried to stop their vehicle.”

“We charged at them and broke their windshield to make them stop. There were two vehicles including a brand new one. They stopped and attempted to escape from the scene. While they managed to flee with the keys of one vehicle, we grabbed the keys of the other. We recovered a mobile phone and further investigation revealed the involvement of a local gaonburha (village elder) named Peel. We don’t know his real name. We came to know that he was somehow involved and had called in both the vehicles from Meghalaya,” the forest official said.

He said that the smugglers were trafficking pine trees. The divisional forest officer was informed about it and the team halted the entire night to secure the vehicle left behind as they were not able to move it. The following morning, a tow truck was called to bring it to their offices where the two vehicles are currently stationed. One of the vehicles has Meghalaya registration with the number ML 05 S 8710, while the other is without a number plate.

The official further said that they are yet to put a price on the seized timber, however, an estimation based on 60 CFT capacities of the carrier vehicles puts its market value at around Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000.
Meanwhile, speaking about the injury to Anil Thapa, he said, “He is not our staffer, he has been an informant for us for a long time. He has helped us in many previous cases, and I would like to urge the government to give him employment with us in any role.”

“A team of home guards had surrounded them from the hills behind and there were two of us, including me, in front of them. As they tried to escape, our team was late to arrive and we were engaged in a fistfight. During the fight, one of their men slashed him in several parts of the body with a sharp weapon. He is currently being treated at NEIGRIHMS in Shillong. I want to urge the relevant authorities to send reinforcements as we are severely understaffed here,” added Majumdar.