NEW DELHI, December 3: Endowed with rich bio-diversity, the North- East is facing the prospect of being stripped of its forest cover in a systematic manner by the powerful and well-connected timber mafia. It is learnt that smuggling of illegal timber over the past year in the Northeast could run to over Rs 100 crores. A chance seizure of 50 wagons loaded with illegally felled timber at the Tinsukia railway station in Assam, nearly a month ago, only strengthened the allegations and reports of large-scale smuggling of timber in the Northeastern states - particularly Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Assam. As the preliminary probe by the Environment and Forests Ministry started, it became clear that the October 5 seizure of 50 timber wagons was only the tip of the iceberg. Sources said that such timber was finding its way to the markets of Calcutta, Delhi and Punjab. With the help of the Union Home Ministry, the Environment and Forests Ministry conducted a physical verification of four wagons which revealed that the wagons contained 91.36 cubic metric tonnes of legal timber and 126.8 cubic metric tonnes of illegal timber. The total value of illegally felled timber in 50 wagons was estimated to be over Rs 2.5 crores. As investigations into the Tinsukia railway station consignment began, it came to light that illegal felling in the forests and smuggling of timber had the covert support of Ministers, politicians and officials. Ownership of several timber mills in Nagaland, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh showed that usually a Minister's close relatives would be major partners of the mills, sources disclosed. Consider this: the Assam government was directed by the Centre to carry out a physical verification of the remaining 46 wagons at the Tinsukia railway station but it was reluctant to take up the job. Even when it did, it came up with a demand of Rs 7.5 lakhs for carrying out the job. A demand draft was sent by the Centre to the state government but it again demanded Rs 23 lakhs for leasing a land to keep the timber. Only when strings were pulled and top officials told that the Supreme Court had ordered that the seizure should be deemed to have been done by it did the State machinery swing into action. On October 15, the Environment and Forests Ministry issued detailed orders regarding the movement of timber to ensure that such illegally felled timber should not be taken outside the State. It has been ordered that wagons containing timber shall not be allowed to be moved outside the Northeastern states without ensuring a physical verification at the timber-loading point by an officer not below the rank of Conservator of Forests of the State where the timber was being loaded. Concerned over the loss of forest cover on a large scale, the Supreme Court had passed a series of orders beginning on December 12, 1996. Right from defining `reserved', `protected' and `unclassified' forests, the apex court orders ranged from banning non-forest activity to putting restrictions on transportation of timber. Last year, the Court abolished the system of issue of permits and ordered that timber could only be transported by Railways to other parts of the country. The Court also set up a high-powered committee to oversee the implementation of its orders and also examine the Action Taken Report. The focus also brought to notice the case of an Indian Forest Service officer of the 1979 batch who was allegedly in possession of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Posted in Arunachal Pradesh, the officer was placed under suspension on October 8 by the Environment and Forests Ministry and the allegations against him were forwarded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for further probe. (Vinay Kumar; The Hindu, Chennai; December 4, 1999)

GUWAHATI, December 13: The Assam Forest Protection Battalion, raised to protect the state's flora and fauna, is fighting a losing battle due to the forest department's apathy. Raised way back in 1984, the force is today short of funds and support from the government. These two factors have rendered it virtually ineffective. Environmentalists have demanded that the force be rejuvenated to protect the state's shrinking forest cover. It is estimated that rampant encroachment and felling will have denuded at least 1,000 square km of forests by the beginning of the new millennium. Assam presently has 30,708 square km of forests in a geographical area of 78,719 square km. "All our pleas have fallen on deaf ears. The government has taken no step to strengthen the forest protection battalion," said a senior official. He said the force had been deployed in 23 districts of the state despite constraints like unavailability of sophisticated weapons. "Armed with outmoded .303 rifles, our personnel continue to be the sentinels of all wild habitats in the state," he said. The official said forest protection force personnel were not paid salaries and other allowances regularly despite performing their duties diligently. He said even uniform and other basic items were at a premium. "We have not received our salaries and rations for the past couple of months. Shops refuse to give us essential commodities on credit," the official said. Battalion commandant RK Chakravarty said the force had not been provided with sophisticated weapons due to a financial crunch. Principal chief conservator of forests P Lahon attributed the financial crisis to the cut in budgetary allocation for the forest department this year. "We submitted a supplementary budget, but our request for additional funds was turned down," he said. Peeved over the indifferent attitude of the forest department, personnel at the forest battalion's headquarters-cum-training centre at Basistha have demanded that they be divided into groups and amalgamated with other police battalions, as in the case of the 15th and 16th battalions. (Siddhartha Dutta Kashyap; The Telegraph, Calcutta; December 14, 1999)

GUWAHATI, December 15: Huge quantities of gold are being smuggled into the Northeastern states through the long and porous Indo-Bangla border. Intelligence sources said on an average, gold biscuits worth nearly Rs 5 crore were being smuggled into the region every month. "The smuggling generally goes up before the marriage season," a senior intelligence official added. The gold biscuits, which are of Swiss and British origin, enter through Tripura, Meghalaya and Karimganj district in Assam. "The biscuits are mostly transhipped to the region from Bangladesh through some experienced rectum carriers," he said. "It is very difficult to arrest smugglers who carry biscuits in their rectum as there are no X-ray machines along the Indo-Bangla borders," the official said. "Whenever we come across any suspected courier, we need to take him to the nearest town for X-ray and medical tests," he added. The customs department and allied forces have made a series of seizures along the Assam and Meghalaya border from July to September this year, the official said. Gold biscuits worth Rs 5 lakh were seized in the Paltan Bazar area here in September this year. The "courier" told the interrogators that a 116-gm smuggled gold biscuit is sold between Rs 47,000 and Rs 53,000 in the Northeast market and the smugglers get a profit margin of Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 per biscuit. Another "courier", arrested in Shillong around the same time, gave similar statements, the source said. On the basis of these statements, security forces carried out raids in Meghalaya and Karimganj district. "We found that there is a connection between gold smuggling and export of coal to Bangladesh," the official said, adding that they were trying to find out the exact modus operandi of the smugglers. "Mostly the trucks carrying coal to Bangladesh are overloaded. While the payment for the official transaction is made in dollars, the payment for the additional amount of coal is made in terms of gold," the official said. Sources said the customs department had asked the Union commerce ministry to set up weigh bridges at all export points along the Indo-Bangla border. Gold smuggling went up after the upward revision of import duty this year. Though import of gold has been legalised from 1994, goldsmiths in the Northeast prefer to use the smuggled product as it is "comparatively cheaper", the official said. The importers and end-users pay an import duty of nearly Rs 5,000 on each biscuit. The basic import duty on gold is Rs 400 per 10 gm and there is also an additional duty over it, he added. (Correspondent; The Telegraph, Calcutta; December 16, 1999)