SUKKUR, Feb 5: An inquiry was ordered by the chief conservator, Hyderabad region, Ghulam Mustufa Shaikh, against the staff of the Forest Department, Ghotki, for stealing wood.

The staff of the Forest Department were allegedly involved in stealing the wood. But to cover their crime they used to set the tree trunks on fire on almost a daily basis.

However, their crime came into the fore when on one occasion the fire spread resulting in hundreds of acres of forest including the hundred-year-old wooden palace, Laghat, to be destroyed.

Reliable sources said that Forest Department employees sold the wood on a daily basis after having cut the trees, and added that almost 70 trees were cut during a month.

They elucidated that since it could be learnt from the trunks that the trees had been cut, they set them on fire to cover evidence. On one occasion, the fire spread and went out of control burning a vast area of the forest thus causing a loss in millions of rupees.