Maoists have enforced a blanket ban on illegal cutting of trees by the timber mafia inside forests in some parts of eastern Bihar districts.

Laljit Koda, the spokesperson of eastern Bihar and north Jharkhand special area committee of CPI(Maoist), told The Telegraph over the phone: 'For the greater interest of forest and environment, the organisation has come forward to pitch in where the government machinery seems defunct. The ineffective administration and corrupt forest personnel have given a free hand to the timber mafia in eastern Bihar districts.'

Police and intelligence agencies, however, had a different take on the rebel claim. They attributed the rebels' ban on timber cutting of timber to their fear of security agencies hiding inside the forests. 'The existence of forest cover faces a serious threat in this region. We can cite several examples in Munger, Lakhisarai, Jamui and Banka districts, dense forest have given way to large tracts of clear land over the past decade,' said Koda.

'We have started convincing villagers of nearby forest areas not to allow any outsider inside the forest. We would punish the villagers if any such thing gets reported from their areas. In many places, we have fixed posters in forests,' he said. Corroborating the version of the rebels' spokesperson, many woodcutters at different places in the districts narrated their experiences. 'Since long, we used to climb the hills for wood but in the first week of March, rebels beat us up and threatened us not to visit the area to cut trees again,' told a group of woodcutters at Bariarpur railway station under Munger district.

A police officer in eastern Bihar said: 'The rebels are under pressure from the police and other security agencies, which have started entering deep forest in the most inaccessible locations. The rebels, who earlier used the forest as their hideout, face trouble after the density of the forests gradually began decreasing.'