Paonta Sahib easy route for wood smugglers, 34 deodar logs seized

In a major crackdown on illegal logging, the Paonta Sahib police have seized 34 logs of deodar worth over Rs 2.6 lakh from a pick-up vehicle (UK-07CA-3310) at the Behral interstate barrier. The driver of the vehicle managed to escape towards Haryana before he could be interrogated by the police.

According to Paonta Sahib DSP, Ramakant Thakur, the police team stopped the vehicle, which was transporting the logs covered with a blue tarpaulin, around 4 am at the Behral interstate barrier. The driver, who identified himself as Raj Rawat, fled towards Haryana through the nearby forest area.

“Rawat’s Aadhaar card and phone number were taken by the staff after he was asked to alight from the vehicle. The driver hails from Mangri village in Shimla district. The footage of CCTV cameras installed at the barrier is being used to take forward the probe and trace him,” said Thakur, according to The Tribune.

As per the preliminary probe, the logs were brought from Uttarakhand and were being taken to Haryana. “The phone number of the owner, obtained from the vehicle registration record, is switched off. He is being traced to know where the consignment was headed for,” added Thakur. The vehicle owner has been identified as Ujala, a resident of Sawai village in the Kalsi tehsil of Dehradun.

Nahan Divisional Forest Officer, Sourabh, stated that deodar was found in the higher reaches of Sirmaur district, and it is being determined whether the logs were axed from some government or private forest area.

Block Forest Officer, Sachin Sharma, assessed the price of the wood based on its volume at Rs 2,67,400. A case has been registered under Sections 41 and 41 of the Indian Forest Act and Sections 379 and 411 of the Indian Penal Code.

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