Foresters of Baikunthapur forest division seized teak wood worth around Rs 40 lakh from the outskirts of Siliguri on Monday morning.
Sources said that a team of the Belakoba forest range of the Baikunthapur division intercepted a container truck while patrolling on National Highway-27 at Fatapukur, a locality in the neighbouring Jalpaiguri district.
The container truck was taken to the forest beat office at Mantadari. When foresters searched the truck, they found the timber neatly packed inside.
The timber had been illegally loaded at Assam’s Guwahati and was supposed to be smuggled to Calcutta, where the container truck had been headed, police sources said.
Ram Vilas, the truck’s driver, who is from Uttar Pradesh, has been arrested in this connection.
Buffaloes rescued
Acting on a tip-off, a team from New Jalpaiguri police station intercepted a truck at Fulbari at the southern end of Siliguri on Sunday night and seized 19 buffaloes from it.
Mohammad Hussain, the driver of the truck, has been arrested. A police source said that the buffaloes were loaded somewhere in Bihar. The plan was to smuggle the animals across the border to Bangladesh, the source added.
Leopard trapped
A leopard was trapped at the Bhatpara tea estate in Alipurduar on Monday afternoon.
Sources said a few days back, some workers had alerted the forest department that the animal had strayed into the garden. This made the forest department lay a trap in the tea estate and wait for the leopard. On Monday, the animal walked into the cage. Later in the day, foresters took away the leopard. It was then released into the Buxa Tiger Reserve at Rajabhatkhawa, foresters said.
