Timber travails
CONCERTED efforts by officials of the Kamrup East Forest Division have shown encouraging results in containing large-scale illegal felling and trade of valuable trees in reserved forests along the Assam-Meghalaya border. Every alternate day, the forest officials patrol the border and conduct frequent, sudden raids in suspected villages inside and outside the reserved forests. The arrest of the criminals and the subsequent seizure of illegal logs and timbers, alongwith elephants, trucks and bullocks hired for transporting the logs, has dampened the spirits of the smugglers. The suppliers of elephants and trucks now think twice before lending their elephants and trucks to smugglers for fear of being confiscated.