Eviction of illegal saw mills welcomed in Udalguri district

The Udalguri district administration has taken strict actions against illegal saw mills operating at various places of the district.At the direction of SS Meenakshi Sundaram, Deputy Commissioner,Udalguri, a joint team of civil,police and forest officials, headed by TR Pegu, SDPO (Bhergaon Sub-division) raided the premises of a few illegal saw mills located at Kalaigaon on October 11.The saw mill had been run by-Saiful Haque,Rahabul Haque,Rashid Ali and Asraf Ali of Kalaigaon.The team seized huge amounts of sawn timber.The team also raided the premises of another two illegal saw mills Kabirali (10 KM from Kalaigaon)The saw mills had been run by Edward Daimari and Prahar Daimari.According to official sources approximately 500 CFT of sawn timbers had been seized from both the places.In another operation,forest officials seized 25 nos of bi-cycles carrying 200 CFT of sawn timber at Mazbat,Orang and Rowta areas till October 11.

Bankim Sarma,DFO,Udalguri told this correspondent that the eviction had been possible for coordination and cooperation among police,forest and civil authorities of the district.He also thanked ABSU Udalguri for offering full support to the process of eviction.It needs mention that a number of illegal saw mills had been operating in the district causing untold harm to environment and ecology.People living in the villages had made it a habit of felling even small immature trees to be sawn in the illegal saw mills for earning money.

TR Pegu,SDPO,and in-charge of the operation told that any size of timber could be sawn in such saw mills,thereby encouraging village people to sell their immature fruit and valuable household trees.He said that if things were not stopped,Udalguri would turn into a treeless district in future.He appealed people not to fell trees but to plant more and more trees under “Mission Udalguri Green” launched by Udalguri district administration.

It may also be mentioned that a meeting was held at Udalguri Dcs conference hall on October 7 to discuss the matter.Several high ranking officials and heads of organizations ,including- Col.S Upadhaya, CO,315 Field Regiment; Dipen Boro, President,district ABSU; Govinda Basumatari,General Secretary of NDFB (P); leaders of ARSU; AASAA, ABSYF; AAGSU and AKRSU etc attended the meeting which was presided over by SS Meenakshi Sundaram, Deputy Commissioner,Udalguri.It was agreed in the meeting that threat posed by deforestation due to illegal tree felling by a section of antisocial elements would be stopped in the district by evicting all the illegal saw mills including the eviction of Sastrapara timber auction market in the first phase under “Mission Green Udalguri”