MINGORA: The Swat forest department officials have been accused of being involved in illegal cutting and smuggling of precious cedar trees.

The accusation was made by the members of the Kalam Forest Bachao (save Kalam forests) committee here on Friday.

They claimed to have caught some forest officials red-handed while smuggling the precious timber out of Kalam.

“Last night we were sitting at our checkpost that a vehicle of forest department loaded with precious wood was signaled to stop, but the driver tried to speed away. However, we managed to block the way of the vehicle,” claimed Riaz Ahmad, a member of the committee. He said when they checked the vehicle they found it contained many logs of cedar.

He said when the committee members asked the forest officials about the cedar logs, they threatened and asked them to observe silence.

“Luckily, other residents of Kalam reached there and we managed to caught them and invited elders to tell them about the entire matter,” said Ahmad.

“The precious cedar logs had neither government seal on them nor there were legal documents with the forest officials,” said Malak Mohammad Rasool Khan, another member of the body. He said the forest officials were handed over to police.

Attempts were made to contact forest officials in Bahrain and Mingora but nobody responded.

PORCUPINES DESTROY SAPLINGS: Residents of Asharbanr area have revealed that thousands of young trees have been damaged by porcupines.

They said the forest department planted 135,000 pine saplings in the hilly region of Charbagh tehsil, but the porcupines had damaged most of them.

“We were very happy that the saplings which we planted last year were growing well, but the young trees have been completely damaged by porcupines,” Nisar Ahamd, a resident of the village, told Dawn, adding the porcupines were living in deep caves and it was hard to trace and kill them.

The locals said the porcupines came out in the night, uprooted the young trees and chewed on their roots.

Iqbal Khan, another resident, said some years ago the forest department would give them Rs500 for killing or catching a porcupine. But since the department stopped paying the locals they did not bother to go to the caves and catch porcupines,” he told Dawn.

The villagers said as their area had been declared sensitive from security viewpoint gunshots were not allowed by the government.

When contacted, the area forest guard said the forest department had planted pine trees on 145 hectares of land in the hilly Asharbanr area, but porcupines caused extensive damage to the young trees.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2017