the goan I network
VALPOI
The forest department on Thursday detained four persons on charges of illegally cutting and transporting timber from 19 felled trees valued at Rs 5 lakh at Advoi-Sattari Taluka. Two vehicles have also been seized in the incident.
According to sources, illegal tree cutting was reported in the property owned by Swati Satish Desai at Advoi. Locals then alerted the forest department regarding the illegal cutting of trees.
A forest team rushed to the site and found about 19 teak trees were felled and efforts had been made to transport the timber.
After conducting the panchaname, forest officials seized the illegally cut timber and handed them over to the landowner, Swati Desai.
Later at night, some unknown persons tried to take away the seized material but as fate would have it, one vehicle broke down by the roadside.
Locals then noticed the attempts being made to transport the seized timber and alerted officials at Valpoi and a mobile squad from the Ponda division.
Officials then seized a pickup (MH-07-2662) and car (MH-43-5477), but the accused had been absconding.
The accused, Krishna Desai (Advoi-Sattari), Bala Parab (Banda-Maharashtra), Pradeep Matonkar (Banda-Maharashtra) and Sandeep Malvankar (Banda-Maharashtra) were arrested on Thursday.
Assistant Conservator of Forest Anand Jadhav supervised the investigations and claimed that the four accused have been booked under the Forest Protection Act.
