A forest officer suffered head injuries in a brutal assault by a gang of wood poachers who were transporting a tempo load of smuggled khair logs that were felled in a government-owned forest near Mano
A forest officer suffered head injuries in a brutal assault by a gang of wood poachers who were transporting a tempo load of smuggled khair logs that were felled in a government-owned forest near Manor early on Saturday.
The Forest Department, Manor had received information that a poachers’ gang was transporting smuggled khair logs around midnight on Friday. Hence forest officer B.S. Dalvi and his team of guards were on night patrol at Sativali village on the busy NH8 near Virar.
Just then a Tata tempo passed them, carrying logs towards Mumbai on the NH8. Following this, Mr Dalvi gave chase in his jeep. Seeing a police jeep on his tail, the driver of the truck took a diversion at Sakwar village and Mr Dalvi followed the truck.
Later the truck stopped at a distance and a volley of stones suddenly rained on Mr Dalwi and his men. Some stones smashed the jeep’s windshield and shards of glass pieces hit Mr Dalwi.
Meanwhile, the other guards tried to snatch the truck’s ignition keys but the culprits attacked the guards with lathis and in the dead of the night, the truck vanished into the night with the contraband.
The Virar police has registered a case under sections pertaining to attempt to murder, theft and other sections of the IPC against 10 to 12 unidentified men and is investigating the incident further.
A nakabandi was also held at the highway to arrest the smugglers but the latter managed to hoodwink the police.
Mr Dalwi is admitted in a Wada hospital and had to undergo 35 stitches on his head. Khair logs are grown in Manor, in forest land owned by the government and its pulp is used to extract catechu, which is used in gutkha manufacture in North Indian factories.
A ton of khair log costs around Rs 20,000 and the reddish tinge in the gutkha is obtained from the catechu extracted from the Khair log pulp.
An inter-state gang involved in khair log smuggling and backed by the gutkha lobby is active in Palghar forested areas.
