AGARTALA, May 30 (TIWN): Timber smuggling rampant in the Forest area. Hundreds of tons of teak and other expensive wood are smuggled out to different places to fill the pockets of smugglers. When the Timber smuggling in Tripura is increasing day by day in comparison with drug smuggling in the state, Kamalasagar forest department officials’ detained huge amount of timber red handed, which was being carried illegally on Sunday morning.

While the forest department officials were on patrolling they had noticed huge amounts of woods were illegally kept in a vehicle for smuggling. On receiving the smuggling news Mithun Das, an official of the forest department rushed to the spot and seized the huge amount of timber but the vehicle driver fled from the scene. Local people alleged that the timber smugglers are destroying forests throughout the areas at Radhanagar, Bhatibari, Debipur, Lembu, Tuli, NC, Nagar, Anand Chaumuhani under Kamalasagar Assembly.

Drug smuggling to timber smuggling competitively is rising in Tripura as a source of livelihood, and no initiative has taken from govt authorities to curb these smuggling in the state. Locals demanded to increase the surveillance of forest workers in the forest areas.