STATE TIMES NEWS
BHADERWAH : After continuous crusade for last two months by media and crackdown by Doda Police against forest mafia and corrupt forest officials in Chenab Circle, situation on Wednesday took an ugly turn when a complainant and a social worker was attacked and injured by forest mafia in village Upper Dandi in Bhadarwah this afternoon after a huge seizure of green Cedars from a forest official’s house.
The complainant Ghulam Qadir a resident of village Upper Dandi who was attacked and injured by forest mafia in presence of an investigating team of Territorial Forest officials and Forest Protection Force is undergoing treatment for serious head injuries at Sub District Hospital Bhadarwah. ” When our investigating team recovered several young green cedar trees of a pole of height and some logs at Dandi Forest Block from one Akhter Hussain’s house who happens to be our consolidated employee, suddenly the inmates of the house attacked the complainant,” said DFO Bhadarwah T. B. Singh adding ” We have taken a cognisance of this incident and have asked my staff to lodge an FIR against the culprits and the staff involved in facilitating illegal green felling.”
It is notable to mention here that Ghulam Qadir has lodged a complaint against Forester Shaifar Iqbal and another employee Akhter Hussian for looting green gold and facilitating timber smuggling on a large scale and also putting forest land on sale in Dandi Block of Bhaderwah Forest Division with Forest Minister and Principal Chief Conservator Forest ( PCCF) one month back. Taking cognisance of the complaint, DFO Bhadarwah was asked to initiate an inquiry to ascertain the facts. Last week DFO formed a joint team of Forest and FPF and also asked the complainant to join the investigating team to identify the areas from where timber was extracted illegally which Ghulam Qadir readily agreed. Village social activist Gulam Qadir along with other village youths also called the local media persons and showed massive damage of green cedar and pine trees allegedly done by the forest mafia in close cooperation of corrupt officials in Forest Block Dandi in Neeru Range of Forest Division Bhadarwah. While showing massive green damage at compartment No 57, villager alleged that the unabated cutting of green cover is going on at alarming pace and the concerned higher officials also seem hand-in-glove with each other as despite repeated complaints to the then DFO Abhjit Joshi, no action was taken against the said forester and his associate Akhter Hussain. “Ghulam Qadir was apprehensive that the said forester and his accomplice can harm him and his family physically as he was getting threats from the duo of dire consequences for raising a voice against them, and today they managed to attack him in front of investigating team, ” said another villager Saleem Ahmed. Social activist and environmentalist are up in arms against the Forest Department and have strongly condemned the attack on Gulam Qadir and demanded stern action against the criminals at the earliest.
Meanwhile according to SSP Doda Zahid Naseem Manhas the Bhadarwah Police have registered the case FIR 48/15 under section 341,323 and 147 RPC and arrested two persons namely Mohd Shafi Mir and Mohd Kamran residents of Dandi.
