HARIRPUR, Sept 7: Influential timber traders and lumbermen continue to denude the Khanpur forest range in Haripur district with impunity while officials concerned tend to ignore the loss being inflicted on the natural habitat, sources say.

They accused officials of the forest department and personnel of law-enforcement agencies of complicity with timber smugglers, most of whom enjoyed the backing of influential persons.

Official statistics showed that the total forest cover in the Haripur district was over 204,392 acres with Guzara forest spread over 33,126 acres in the Khanpur Range and 34,500 acres as reserved forest.

Sources said that lumberjacks carried felled trees to illegally-installed saw mills located in the Makhnial, Satora and Khanpur areas where logs were reduced to planks and transported to warehouses owned by influential persons. From there, they said, wood was transported to Punjab for better rates.

The lumberjacks, sources said, usually axed trees in the Khanpur Range after obtaining a permit for felling mature trees from the Guzara forest for fuel or construction of houses. In reality, they cut trees from the reserved forest and used the same permit again and again with the connivance of forest department officials.

A resident of the Makhnial village told this correspondent that the cutting of trees was a common practice and no one - not even forest department officials - could dare say anything about it as they were backed by powerful men.

Deforestation in the hills of the Khanpur Range, which also served as the Khanpur Dam's catchment area, was reportedly causing a rapid increase in the pace of silt accumulation in the reservoir and reducing its storage manifold.

Deforestation in upper Hazara hills also brought 5.4 million tonnes of silt daily to the Tarbela reservoir, effectively reducing its storage capacity to 2.8 million acre-foot besides the formation of a 269-foot-high delta close to the main dam which might hurt the dam's electricity production capacity. It was reported to be only two kilometres away from the main dam.

An official at the district office of the forest department denied the involvement of any official being involved in helping timber smugglers and said that the department was performing its job of curbing timber smuggling and tree felling.