SDM's action on four saw machines operating without a license

Gulshan Paruthi/Manish Mahor

• The machine was being used for illegal cutting and conservation.
• The Forest department is in deep slumber.

Bhind - Lahar Sub-Divisional Magistrate Vijay Singh Yadav today took action against four saw machines operating illegally without a license in the Machand area and sealed all the machines.

SDM Lahar reached the Machand area at noon where he had been receiving complaints earlier that a large number of illegal saw machines were being operated here. No valid documents were found with any operator. Then how are these machines being operated? Ultimately the question arises. Thousands of quintals of wood are illegally cut and brought here every day and are disposed of under conservation on these saw machines. Large trunks of green trees were found cut on all four saw machines. The forest department said that about 40 cubic meters of wood was recovered from all four saw machines, whose market value would be about 02 lakh rupees. After sealing the saw machines, SDM Lahar directed the concerned forest ranger to complete the remaining action within 24 hours.

There is no provision for illegal operation in the Wood Cutting Act 1984. Doesn't the forest department know this?

Keeping in mind the conservation of forests, the government has made the Wood Cutting Act 1984, under which setting up a saw mill or saw pit without a license for wood cutting is a legal offence under Section 4 (a). After all, under whose protection is this environment-destroying illegal business going on and how long will the competent forest department for the above actions keep sleeping in Kumbhakarani's sleep? In this action, Tehsildar Mihona Srinivas Sharma, Deputy Ranger Santosh Tiwari, Forest Guard Dharmendra Yadav, Umesh Baghel and Vijay Garg, Machand Outpost Incharge Ravindra Singh Tomar, Patwari Om Hari Tiwari and Krishnakant Gupta were present.