PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Uttarkashi
In an early morning operation on Wednesday, Uttarkashi police uncovered the smuggling of banned Kajal wood. The police team seized nearly 600 pieces of the wood from a vehicle and arrested two smugglers. The wood seized is said to be worth lakhs of rupees.
Police said that the operation had been carried out under the direction of superintendent of police, Sarita Dobal and under the supervision of DSP, Janak Singh Panwar while the station house officer, Kotwali Uttarkashi, Bhavana Kainthola.
According to police, a team led by the in-charge of the Dunda outpost, Prakash Rana conducted a checking operation at Dunda barrier around 6:30 AM during which a vehicle was stopped and the team confiscated the pieces of Kajal wood stacked in containers. Investigations revealed that a Nepali national identified as Gopal Bohra (39), now living in Tyuni, Dehradun, and a resident of Gangori, Uttarkashi, Vijay (35) were collecting the wood from the Gangori-Agoda forests and were planning to transport it to Dehradun and Saharanpur.
The case, along with the timber, was then handed over to the Forest department for legal action.
Notably, Kajal wood is found in the reserved forests of the high Himalayas and is considered highly medicinal. Buddhists use bowls made from this wood for food and beverages. There is a high demand for this wood in India, China, Tibet and Nepal, which fuels an international illegal smuggling network.
