Siliguri, Nov. 29: Timber and sandalwood worth over Rs 50 lakh were seized from in and around Siliguri over the past two days, making it the largest haul of forest produce in recent times.

Acting on a tip-off, Rathin Roy, the assistant divisional forest officer of Baikunthapur, organised and led the raiding party that salvaged smuggled timber worth over Rs 1 lakh from a pick-up truck at Ghoshpukur under Naxalbari police station on Tuesday night. The wood was on its way to Bihar.

“We spotted the van at Fulbari More on the outskirts of the city and gave chase. Though the driver tried to escape, we finally nabbed him at Ghoshpukur,” he said. With three range officers accompanying him, Roy arrested Ashish Sarkar and Chaman Singh of Putimari in Bagdogra from the truck.

“They have admitted that they had procured the timber from the Bagrakote area of the Dooars and had taken the Malbazar-Mainaguri-Jalpaiguri-Fulbari route to avoid forest patrols. They loaded the wood from the Manabari forest area in the Dooars and took it to Kishanganj in Bihar,” Roy added. The duo was produced at the Siliguri court today and remanded in jail custody.

In another seizure, officials of the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) seized a huge quantity of sandalwood from Naxalbari on Monday night.

DRI officials said the market price of the total consignment, weighing around 11 metric tonnes, would be over Rs 50 lakh. The fragrant wood has been kept in the DRI godown at Siliguri.

“We had specific information about the huge consignment of sandalwood. The timber was on way to Nepal from Chennai when we intercepted the 10-wheeled vehicle (registration number KA 01A 4971) at Satbhaiya near Naxalbari, 20 km from here. The sandalwood was hidden under a layer of onions,” a senior DRI official said. The driver and another person, both residents of Chennai, have been arrested, the officials said.