SHILLONG, July 23 � In one of the biggest seizure of illegal trade in timber, Customs officials have seized a timber consignment worth about Rs 80 crore staked in 43 railway wagons in Guwahati.
Customs official said that the timber consisting of teak and pinewood were booked by forest officials in Dimapur, Nagaland and was meant to be shipped to New Delhi for the timber industries there.
The timber was meant for sale to 25 odd buyers in New Delhi�s Nangloi region for the timber industry there. The customs officials came to learn about the illegal consignment on 10 July.
The Supreme Court in 2006 passed an order banning felling of trees. The verdict literally marked the death knell to plywood industries in the region.
However, the apex court further gave permission for already felled or wind-fallen timber to be traded as they were getting rotted, but the whole process have to be overseen by a Special Investigating Team (SIT) under an Empowered Committee.
Under the guidelines of the SIT, such timber have to have unique marking, requisite Transit Pass, measurement list and covering letter from the state it is shipped.
In this case, custom officials say the Nagaland forest officials have failed to provide any of the documents since July 10 although the consignment was booked under the SIT norms, which is highly illegal.
�If these timbers are going from the northeast why not allow the plywood and other industry here to operate which would help provide employment to locals in the region. Why send it to New Delhi, Haryana and other place,� a senior Customs official asked.
The custom official further said that the Teak are probably being felled illegally from Assam and Arunachal Pradesh by timber mafia and are being shipped to other parts of the country illegally with the active connivance of forest officials in Nagaland.
Meanwhile, custom officials would unload all the timber Saturday morning at BG depot near Bamunimaidan, Guwahati.