Planks being off-loaded from the train at Dinhata. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Cooch Behar, Aug. 5: The Alipurduar-Dinhata Passenger train is used for smuggling timber out of the forests of the Dooars, despite raids and tall claims that efforts are being made to curb the practice.

The planks of teak and sal are placed under seats, in the bunks and even stacked around the entrance to the toilets and on the corridors of the train which leaves Alipurduar station every morning. The timber racket is running a roaring business by selling the wood to furniture manufacturers and carpenters in the Dinhata-Gitaldaha area, which skirts the international border with Bangladesh, in Cooch Behar.

Reacting to reports that precious wood from the Dooars is flowing to his district, Bengal forest minister Ananta Roy said. “I have instructed forest officers to conduct regular checks on this particular train. I will tell them to increase the vigil.”

The Alipurduar-Bamanhat passenger plies twice a day and is the only train in the section. There had been no train in the section for 15 years when a meter-guage track was being converted to broad-guage. The train service resumed last year.

The forest minister also criticised the role of the Government Railway Police (GRP). “They (GRP) must have some links with the timber mafia, otherwise how are they allowing this illegal movement of wood on a passenger train. I will complain to the railways about this.”

However, the divisional forest officer of the Cooch Behar social forestry division, Apurba Sen, said the railway authorities had been made aware of the matter.

“We have informed each and every station master along the line about the racket and they have extended all support to us. We have seized timber worth Rs 50,000 in raids in the past one month,” said Sen.

Claiming that the smuggling has come down, Sen said: “Nowadays, it is usually petty thieves who transport wood on the train and they sell the timber as soon as it is offloaded. We will launch an operation to bring an end to this crime.”

Although the forest department sometimes carries out raids, the smugglers are never caught. Once a raid is over, the timber mafiosi get back to their “normal” activity the very next day.

Sources in the forest department said the timber was clandestinely cut into planks at some saw mills in Alipurduar before being loaded onto the train.

A timber merchant in Dinahata said on condition of anonymity that the smuggled wood was in much demand as it came very cheap. “While one cubic feet of teak costs about Rs 1,000 in the open market, the smuggled wood is available for Rs 300.”

The divisional railway manager, Alipurduar, A.K. Jha, said he was aware of the smuggling activity. “I have instructed the Railway Protection Force to stop this activity and promised the forest department tough action.”