UPPER DIR: Owners of forests in Kohistan area of Upper Dir have called for immediate lifting of ban on collection of windfall timber as it was not only causing decay of millions of feet of wood but had also robbed the local people of their only source of income.

Addressing a press conference here, Malik Abdur Razaq, Bakht Zaman, Bacha Mohammad, Zameen Khan and others said the ban had put 5 million feet of timber at risk of decaying that would cause losses of hundreds of millions of rupees to the community and the government as well.

They said one million feet of timber was ready for transportation to the market as it was lying near the roadside, adding that thousands of feet of timber had already decayed in the forests due to the ban.

The forest owners said that the ban was imposed to stop the cutting of green trees under the garb of the windfall, but it was resulting in loss of millions of feet of timber.

They said that it was forest department’s responsibility to keep check on timber mafia instead of robbing the local community of their sole source of income.

They argued that the area was remote and backward, having no job opportunities or industries to cater to the economic needs of the local people.

They claimed that some ‘irrelevant people’ had taken Rs2.2 million of the forest royalty from a district administration office and demanded recovery of the said amount.

The forest owners said that the joint forest management committee and secretary environment had visited the area in September this year but they didn’t issue orders for transportation of the windfall timber.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014