The Valmiki Tiger Reserve. Picture by Nikhil Mishra

Bagaha, Feb. 20: “Wing commander”, that’s the sobriquet this namesake of the iconic lover, Laila, has earned in the circle of smugglers through years of smuggling Indian timber from Bihar to Nepal.

Laila Begum’s illegal timber trade has flourished, feeding on the forests of Valmiki Tiger Reserve.

After years of running the cane smuggling network sitting at her Susta residence in Nepal, Laila has now diversified into illegal transportation of wood too.

Sources said Laila hadbeen running a big industry of cane processing in Sakardinhi village of Nepal for years, while a saw mill, dependent on the smuggled Indian timber, has now started functioning in Susta.

The consignments of cane and costly timber smuggled from the forests of Valmiki Tiger Reserve regularly reach Nepal and articles prepared from them earn good revenue for the smugglers.

Sources added that after setting up the new saw mill at Laila’s residence, at a dista-nce of barely 1.5km from the border, additional persons were inducted into the trade for its smooth operations.

According to the former mukhiya of Valmikinagar panchayat, Pramod Singh, the syndicate of the wood and cane smugglers is run from across the Narayani river and the smugglers have to toil hard to ensure the consignments reached there. Residents said earlier only one saw mill in Triveni Kala village under Nawalparasi district of Nepal used to operate where the smuggled Indian timber used to reach after crossing the river, but Laila has constructed a saw mill of her own over disputed Indian territory in Susta and extended the limits of her illegal trade from cane to wood.

The repeated seizures of Indian timber by the forest department officials are testimony to the fact. Sources along the border said apart from several cane processing industries operating in the bordering areas, two saw mills, entirely dependent on the supply of Indian timber, also function.

The sources further disclosed that the same cane, which are smuggled into Nepal from the Indian forest, come back to India through the Sonauli-Bhairahwa border of Nepal after paying export duty to the Nepal government and finally reach the markets of Varanasi and Delhi to be sold at exorbitant prices.

When asked about the illegal cutting of cane and wood from Valmiki Tiger Reserve and their frequent consignments to Nepal, the divisional forest officer, S. Kumar Swamy, told The Telegraph: “My rangers and I maintain a close surveillance in the forests adjacent to the Nepal border.” At times, the Nepalese officials also co-operate on checking the crisis in the forests and joint patrolling is conducted along the borders, said Swamy.

He added: “The forest department, with the support of the jawans of the Sashastra Seema Bal and the local police, has been conducting drives against the illegal cutting of forests and the timber mafia.”