Forest officials, smugglers in Uttarakhand's Champawat illegally sold precious trees in last 6 years, reveals report

New Delhi: Forest officials, in connivance with smugglers operating across the sensitive Champawat range in Uttarakhand (bordering Nepal), logged and sold the precious forest produce in the last six years. The voluminous inquiry report submitted to the state’s Environment Minister Harak Singh Rawat on 5 March shows that forest officers, including the top brass, were involved in the racket that targeted pine and sal (Shorea robusta) trees, known for their immense commercial values and sold at a much higher price in the international market.

The report accessed by Firstpost revealed a well-networked gang operating under the garb of legitimate license provided to forest dwellers and villagers to extract and sell the limited quantity of forest produce from the trees on their own land. Misusing the license, a large number of trees were cut and smuggled out of the reserve forest areas with a bit of help from everyone in the system. Since the terrain is treacherous, the probe focused on random places for its findings. The corruption had gone so deep in the administration that Champawat’s District Forest Officer (DFO) AK Gupta wanted to remain on that lucrative position and had turned down his promotion. After the state government issued an order promoting him last year, Gupta fought against his own promotion in the court, arguing that he does not want to be promoted.

Represntational image. Image courtesy: Uttarakhand forest department

The report has recommended exemplary punishment for top forest officials including Gupta, arguing that in majority of corruption cases, the action is confined to the lower level, thus helping the senior corrupt lot to get away with mere transfer.

The report submitted to the environment minister's office said: “While examining the documents, a shocking fact was noticed that DFO (AK Gupta), despite serving here for the last 6 years, wants to remain on the position and has filed a writ petition in the high court against his own promotion. This is unprecedented because normally, government servant (sic) goes to the court for promotion whereas for the first time in history, an officer has approached the court to keep working on the lower level, ignoring the position as well as increment in the salary."

The inquiry report suggested that Gupta was asked to record his statement before the inquiry officer, but he decided against it, despite repeated summons. The report has observed that a random check in certain areas of some districts revealed that around 200 precious trees were chopped off within a year. The scale of the entire scam involving huge sums could be gigantic.

Jai Raj, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Uttarakhand told Firstpost that he is not aware of the extent of illegal logging of trees in Champawat but there are many charges against Gupta and he has been attached (working without any portfolio). Jai Raj, who took over the office in February this year, said the state government is yet to take any action on the report.

“The government wants stern action and we are awaiting the final direction from the higher ups. It is not possible to assess the damage due to difficult terrain of the region but the department will move with disciplinary proceedings against those involved soon,” Jai Raj said.

Environment Minister Rawat could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.

Plundering the forest

The report pointed out that in the last six years, officers allegedly sold lakhs of plants from the nursery, and documented them in the official records as ‘damaged.’

“It was not possible to inspect the entire forest areas and issues linked to it since the last six years but the two teams, with 11 members each, were able to carry out random inspections and could only examine the documents related to 2017. It is very clear from the inspection report that forest produce license and actual seizure shows huge difference, indicating the large-scale illegal logging,” said the report. “It appears that entire Champawat’s forest department machinery (is involved) as it is quite evident from the documents that were prepared by the officers...The biggest example is the truck that was caught in September which claimed to have been carrying 50 quintal precious produce of pine but in fact, it was carrying 132 quintal and had successfully crossed three check posts — Chalthi, Bastiya and Kakrali,” the report stated.

Exposing the modus operandi, the report also revealed that more than one license was issued to legitimate forest dwellers to carry out illegitimate activities. For example, Prayag Singh of Talli Khatoli was issued twin licenses on 14 February, 2012 and 14 July, 2015. Similarly, Chetram of Taanmalla village was issued four licenses on 30 August, 2013, 4 February, 2015, 20 October, 2015 and 10 March, 2017. The inspection teams, which spoke to the villagers, indicated that smugglers are hand-in-glove with the forest officers to obtain illegal license and transportation permit. Huge produce is brought from reserve forest and sold in the market at a high price. A majority of forest produce is smuggled out to Nepal and some also find their way in local market at Tanakpur.

Kuber Singh Bisht, who recently took over as DFO Champawat, told Firstpost he has started a crackdown on smugglers but the understaffed unit is his biggest hurdle.

“I have a huge forest area that is extended till Nepal border and just 100 staff for surveillance on illegal activities. It is impossible to keep a watch on the entire forest reserve area. Nevertheless, we are trying to put an end to illegal chopping of trees and smuggling,” Bisht said.

The probe report also made a very scathing remark against officials involved in issuing license for legitimate logging and sale of produce by the villagers. It said: “The entire forest department at Champawat cleared the application without due diligence and signed on the papers. They did not carry out inspection of villages to find out whether trees were available on their land for large quantity of forest produce as mentioned in the application. It is impossible that villagers have enough numbers of trees for such production and there is a huge difference detected during the inquiry. The difference was met by illegally chopping off the reserve forest trees.”

Para 2.2, annexure ‘A' of the report observed that during inspection, revenue officials were conspicuously absent, despite clear direction from the authorities to assist them in the probe. For example, page 8 of annexure A, table 3 suggests that in Madyoli village, eight trees were allowed to be cut by the owner through legitimate license. The inspection team subsequently visited the nearest Paalvilon reserve forest range where they found 47 tree stumps. Similarly in Balatadi, 13 trees were legally logged while in the nearest reserve area, the officials found remains of 128 trees that they suspected were illegally cut and smuggled. During the random inspection at Devidhura forest range, the inspection team found that eight trees were brought down after getting the license, but in the nearest reserve forest range, the officials discovered loss of 167 precious trees.

The team identified and marked dead trees during the random inspection and came out with a definite conclusion that a large-scale, well-oiled network was involved in various protected forest ranges. Para 2.4.2, page 16 of the report provides more details on modus operandi of the cartel.

“The analysis of the reports suggests that tree stumps found at the villager’s field and produce transported on paper show huge gaps (sic). It appears that this gap was met by logging trees from protected forest areas,” it said.

Para 2.4.5 said concerned forest officer issued transport voucher in Devidhura and Bhigrada forest range but it was not verified and attested by any other staff member, clearly indicating the whole process was compromised to help the illegal smuggling. In annexure B, page 468 of the report, investigators examined the situation in several villages including Kukdauni, Need, Haram, Resang, Aamgoonth, Salli and Monpokhri. The large-scale illegal chopping of pine trees was recorded.

“In the remote and inaccessible areas, a majority of population has migrated to the cities and remaining ones are dependent on cattle and forest produce. The innocent villagers collect these produce without realising whether it is from their own land or protected forest. The businessmen get the requisite transportation papers made in connivance with forest officers and thus precious commodities are smuggled out into the market. This process has been going on unabated,” the report further said.