Now, coffin for another purpose

 

COOCH BEHAR, Dec. 28: Forest plunderers and timber smugglers are adopting new methods to run their illegal activities following intensive raids to stop their business. Such a case was detected last night.

 

Acting on a tip-off a team of forest officials from Cooch Behar social forestry division led by ADFO Mr SK Baroi and range officer Mr Rahul Mukherjee intercepted a cycle-van at Sonari area near Alipurduar last night. It was coming towards Cooch Behar town via Gopalpur. The forest officials turned astonished when they saw a large coffin on that cart. Being suspicious they opened its lid and saw a huge quantity of sawn teakwood inside it. Smelling danger the cart puller ran away. The cycle-van and the timber were seized. The value of the seized timber is worth Rs 30,000.

 

A senior forest department official said timber trafficking by using coffin-like containers is a novel invention of the forest plunderers. "We never detected any such case in this region earlier", he said. The seized timber was being trafficked illegally from nearby forests, he suspects. He made it clear that they will continue their efforts to stop illegal trading of timber in this region.

 

ADFO (SF) Mr Baroi said they seized a huge quantity of timber worth Rs one-lakh from Rampur, Cooch Behar railway station, Baneswar, Sonari and other areas in Cooch Behar district during the past seven days. It is suspected that the seized timbers were brought from forests of Dooars and Assam to sell in the clandestine market in Cooch Behar, he said. []