Rs 1.5 crore worth kendu leaves smuggled from Chhattisgarh, stashed in Malkangiri district

A team from Chhattisgarh with help of police and forest staff of Malkangiri raided two kendu leaf stockyards of private traders in the last 24 hours.
A team from Chhattisgarh with help of police and forest staff of Malkangiri raided two kendu leaf stockyards .
A team from Chhattisgarh with help of police and forest staff of Malkangiri raided two kendu leaf stockyards .

MALKANGIRI: Huge consignments of kendu leaves collected from pluckers of Chhattisgarh, who have not been paid, are allegedly being smuggled across the border into Odisha. The unscrupulous traders, who apparently owe a staggering Rs 1.5 crore to the tribals, have forest officials as well as the police of the neighbouring State on their trail to Malkangiri district where the minor forest produce is stashed away.

A team from Chhattisgarh with help of police and forest staff of Malkangiri raided two kendu leaf stockyards of private traders in the last 24 hours. A raid at a godown owned by one Rahim Khan at MV-3 on the outskirts of Malkangiri town yielded 200 standard bags of kendu leaves stored illegally on Saturday.
The Chhattisgarh team also raided a private hoarding point at MV-16 and sealed it. The team lodged a complaint against Gulam Khan, a trader of Malkangiri for cheating pluckers by not paying them their dues to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore, forest officials told this paper. Another trader Bahadur Khan who owned a godown at MV-16 was also held. Separate FIR has been lodged in Chhattisgarh in this regard.

The seizure of huge volumes of kendu leaves by the private traders has exposed the flourishing smuggling of the minor produce which has been deregulated. The smuggling would have gone unnoticed had Chhattisgarh officials not raided the private kendu leaf godowns in Malkangiri, sources said.Sources said private traders operating in the two states are reportedly purchasing kendu leaves and selling at higher rates without even paying the pluckers. After the issue was raised in the Chhattisgarh Assembly, the forest and police officials began the probe.

The raids have exposed how the deregulated trade which is supposed to fetch better prices to the pluckers, mostly tribals, is actually being used for their exploitation. It has also brought under scanner the lack of surveillance on the Malkangiri side since the entire chain of activities including plucking, storing and permit for sale are supposed to be monitored by forest and panchayat officials.

As per the norms, local range officers and panchayat officials must check the volume of transportation by the private traders based on permits issued. Permits to the traders for transportation of kendu leaves are given by kendu leaf wing after getting a report from the district panchayat officer.

Chief Conservator of Forests (Kendu Leaf), Balangir Pradipta Kumar Mahapatra said the office does not have any information on the number of private players and private hoarding in Malkangiri because of the non-furnishing of information by the district panchayat officer. District panchayat officer Jugal Kishor Nayak, however, passed the buck on to panchayat extension officers.

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