This Divisional Forest Officer dived by example to expose timber smugglers
BHUBANESWAR: This young Divisional Forest Officer not only displayed courage and immense intelligence, he also led by great example. Meet D Dhanraj Hanumant, the 2016 batch IFS officer, the DFO of Nayagarh who jumped into a pond to recover smuggled timber logs amid resistance by locals at a village in the district.
Hanumant and his team conducted raid at Dhumsa village within Sarankul block of the district on September 7 after getting information on smuggling of Sal logs from the nearby Gochha and Barbara forests bordering Nayagarh and Khurda.
In fact, the DFO was on his way to Nayagarh from Bhubaneswar during the evening and on receiving a tip off, he directed the local ranger to conduct the raid. On being informed that the logs are missing, the DFO asked them to follow the drag marks that usually appear on road as smugglers drag the timber from the forest using buffaloes.
A couple of hours later, when the DFO reached the spot and found that the marks led towards a pond he asked his staff to search it. However, the staff were reluctant and Hanumant had to jump into the water. Soon, the staff joined him and they recovered around 200 CFT timber worth `4 lakh during our search.
“The staffs were reluctant as they had been manhandled by the villagers and mafia during such raids on several occasions in the past. Besides, a forester had also been killed by the mafia four or five years back during one such raid,” Hanumant said.
The Forest staff had to seek help of police and administration since by the time they managed to find out that the logs were hid under water, villagers had ganged up at the spot and started resisting their decision of entering into the pond during night.
In absence of adequate manpower for patrolling and enforcement, villages like Dhumsa, Panibhandar, Kajalaipalli have turned into save heaven for timber mafia. Two months back, forest field staff of the division had also seized around 300 CFT timber from Kantilo area. However, the smugglers are still at large. The DFO said the mafia members and villagers who have mastered the trick of smuggling timber from the nearby forest on certain occasions push village women to front during raid to evade trouble.
While around 10 locals from the area are being suspected to be involved in smuggling of the timber, the DFO has begun an internal inquiry to find out if any field staff are in nexus with them and passing on information regarding such raids.
Hanumant said efforts are on to implement skill programmes under different schemes of the State Government and Centre at the community level to create livelihood opportunity for the villagers around the forest to prevent them from falling into the trap of mafias.
Efforts are on to form Van Suraksha Samitis in such villages to increase community participation to prevent such activities in the long run, he said. Hanumant, meanwhile, has received praise from many including PCCF and HoFF Sandip Tripathy and Chilika Chief Executive Susanta Nanda for his courageous act. The DFO is also confident that the successful raid will boost morale of the field level staff further.