Over 80 teak trees felled in Ghodazari sanctuary?

Nagpur: Taking advantage of lockdown, teak smugglers with the involvement of forest staff have struck it rich by felling over 80 big teak trees in and around Ghodazari wildlife sanctuary, 105km from here, in Nagbhid forest range under the Bramhapuri division.
Chandrapur honorary district wildlife warden Vivek Karambelkar, who visited the sanctuary on Wednesday along with members of NGO Nature Environment & Wildlife (NEW) and villagers, said, “We recorded at least 80 stumps inside the sanctuary but according to the villagers, the number of trees maybe even more and the smuggling racket must be going on for long with the involvement of the forest staff.”
Bramhapuri deputy conservator of forests (DyCF) Dipesh Malhotra, denied felling inside the sanctuary. “In separate raids in the area, we have seized 22 logs of teakwood valued at Rs77,000. The stumps of these trees fall in the territorial forest in Mangrul and not in the sanctuary as being alleged.”
However, Mangrul villagers, who released pictures of stumps of trees felled in Huma and Mangrul forest area, on May 4, submitted a memorandum to the deputy conservator demanding action against forest staff and teak smugglers who are hand in glove otherwise such felling inside a sanctuary is not possible.
Mangrul sarpanch Vaibhav Nikhure said, “We have demanded action against the forest staff and those involved. It is possible that the forest fires last month must have been ignited to destroy evidence of tree felling in and around Ghodazari sanctuary.”
The villagers have also demanded a probe into fake financial claims of crop damage from the forest department, especially when there is no crop in the agriculture fields. The role of forest staff in the illicit felling cannot be ruled out.
Malhotra said, “Acting on a tip-off about illicit tree felling, we conducted the first raid on April 26, on a farm owned by Madhukar Satpaise, a resident of Mangrul, and seized seven big logs of teak hidden under haystacks.”
“We are verifying call details records (CDRs) and have registered five preliminary offence reports (PORs) against unidentified persons. After forest staff being named, an in-charge lady beat guard has been shifted. Further investigation is going on and action will be taken if more staff is found involved,” said Malhotra.