Himachal: Three people arrested for illegally cutting pine trees
Himachal Pradesh: A forest department team has arrested three people involved in illegal felling of deodar trees in Salooni area of Chamba district. Taking advantage of the darkness, three criminals managed to escape from the spot. According to reports, late last night, Forest Range Officer Hamid Khan, forest guards Lekh Raj and Virendra Kumar, along with forest personnel Suresh Kumar and Teju were patrolling on the Chakoli-Kandhwara road near Kuthed. During patrolling, they heard the sound of cutting trees with an axe in the Kuthed reserve forest. The team immediately took action and reached the spot and found that six people were involved in illegal felling. On seeing the officials, three suspects fled from the spot, while the remaining three were caught with the wood.
The forest department found that a total of five deodar trees were felled – four were said to be of fourth category and one was of fifth category. The estimated value of the illegally felled wood is around Rs 1.5 lakh. Initially, the accused agreed to pay the fine, but later they refused. The three arrested persons have been identified as Bhagat Ram of Kuthed village of Diyur panchayat, Rahul of Shail village and Diwan Chand of Bhadol village. The other three suspects fled from the spot. Divisional Forest Officer of Salooni, Sushil Kumar Guleria said that the department has lodged a formal complaint at the local police station. Interestingly, one of the arrested persons is a SPO (Special Police Officer) in the police department and his name is also on the waiting list for recruitment under the Van Mitra programme for the same forest area.
