ILAM, Oct 10: The District Forest Office, Ilam, has formed a dispute resolution committee to settle a conflict surfaced between the forest officials and sawmill operators in the district.
The conflict was seen after the forest officials seized a huge amount of Sakhuwa timber from a sawmill at Domukha in the district while carrying out a monitoring.
Acting forest officer Ram Swartha Sah said that a panel has been formed to prepare a detail report comprising officials of Regional Forest Directorate, Biratnagar, Surunga Range Post, Jhapa, and Chulachuli Range Post, Ilam.
Officials suspected that the trees could have been cut off from Mahamai based Gaide Community Forest. Most of the consumers of this community forest are residents of Jhapa district though the forest lies in Ilam district.
Similarly, smugglers have destroyed a large number of trees in Ram Janaki Community Forest at Kolbung in the district. However, the officials have not held anyone involved in tree falling.
The smugglers are active in tree falling to make money for festivals as the price of timber has gone up drastically, officials said.
Sah said that the officials have faced difficulties to control massing deforestation due to lack of sufficient human resource. He said only 17 forest guards, out of 32 posts, are deployed to control deforestation.
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