A truckload of timber being seized by officials at the Dhansiri reserve forest. File picture

Guwahati, June 9: The army could soon be asked to go to war to save a forest.

The Assam forest department has asked the state government to hand over the Dhansiri reserve forest in Karbi Anglong to the army to prevent timber smugglers and militants from destroying it.

The divisional forest officer of Karbi Anglong, West division, Sushil Daila, told The Telegraph that armed timber smugglers were felling trees inside the reserve forest and had already laid bare large stretches of it.

“Handing over the 70,000-odd hectares to the army is the only solution to save the forest, which is full of valuable timber. We are doing our best, but we are fighting a losing battle,” he added.

Daila said the forest department had seized three truckloads of teak today. Over the past eight months, the department has impounded 10,000 cubic feet of timber, 17 trucks, five buffaloes and several bicycles.

A few days ago, armed timber smugglers had fired on his vehicle, Daila said. On April 10, two armed youths had threatened a homeguard at his residence, asking him to warn the officer to “mind his own business”.

The timber thieves are known to go to any extent to snuff out potential threats. In December last year, a policeman who was assisting forest personnel in conducting raids was shot dead.

Daila said Orissa had also sought the help of paramilitary forces to protect Barbara reserve forest in Khurda district when Biju Patnaik was chief minister and the move had proved successful. “The rampant felling of timber in Barbara forest was controlled after the CRPF took over,” he added.

The officer said the situation was much worse in Dhansiri. Orissa had to face only timber smugglers but in Dhansiri, militants, too, had to be tackled. “Here the situation is more critical since militants armed with sophisticated weapons are involved. The army is the only solution to save this forest,” he said.

“Our personnel have become demoralised as we are totally helpless in the face of armed militants who have started pillaging the forest,” Daila said.

A group of forest department personnel had come face to face with over 100 timber smugglers inside the forest a couple of days ago. But the outnumbered forest employees were reduced to mute spectators with the smugglers continuing to fell trees at will.

Daila said that of late, the smugglers were using buffaloes to ferry timber to locations from where the contraband was loaded on trucks. “These smugglers have local support who get paid for help,” he added.