In spite of a series of efforts at the Government and non-Government levels to create mass awareness about the need of conservation of forests for maintenance of ecological balance, illegal felling of valuable trees and smuggling of timber have been going on unabated in forest areas of the undivided Lakhimpur district. Foothill forest areas bordering Arunachal Pradesh are notorious for timber smuggling. Saw-pits with hand-driven devices are installed in the depth of forests from which timbers are carried by the labourers to the specified destinations, as informed to this correspondent by some labourers. Even the near-by rivers are used for collecting such timbers.