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Journalism of Courage
THE CHIEF Conservator of Forests, Valsad division, has suspended the Navsari district Range Forest Officer (RFO), and a woman forester for alleged “negligence” in their duty that which led to the seizure of a consignment of hundreds of Khair tree logs, valued in crores, by forest officers of Maharashtra a few days ago.
Officers identified the two suspended persons as Vansda RFO, J D Rathod, and forester Hetal Patel.
Sources said on Friday that a local resident allegedly installed a “spy camera” in the office of a woman forester and videos of her “corrupt practices” later surfaced on social media.
According to sources in the forest department in Valsad, Maharashtra, officers seized a container loaded with hundreds of Khair tree logs from National Highway 53 in Maharashtra’s Palghar in the first week of November.
The officers checked the documents and apprehended a truck driver and a cleaner on suspicion. During questioning, the truck driver disclosed that the consignment was loaded by one Arjun Patel at Godthal village in Chikhli taluka of Navsari district. Forest department officers suspected the involvement of Chikhli forest department personnel and informed Valsad Deputy Conservator of Forest, Lokesh Bhardwaj.
Bhardwaj directed Assistant Conservator of Forest Ruchi Dave, who works with Valsad North Division, to investigate the alleged smuggling of Khair wood logs from Gujarat. ACF Dave conducted raids at Arjun Patel’s residence and found around 332 tonnes of Khair bark worth over Rs 3 crore in the backyard of his home. Following the seizure of Khair wood bark, Arjun Patel was booked under several sections of the Forest Conservation Act on November 7 and subsequently interrogated.
A forest officer with Valsad forest department, who did not wish to be named, told The Indian Express on Friday, “Arjun Patel has been a notorious smuggler of Khair wood for decades, and cases were registered against him under the Forest Act earlier as well. He disclosed the names of 19 people involved in the racket, and also involvement of his son and his cousin.”
He added, “A farmer who grows Khair wood in his fields has to take permission from the forest department to cut down the tree. Arjun Patel is hand-in-glove with the forest department of Vansda and Chikhli in Navsari district, was procuring large quantities of Khair woods from different farmers and after peeling the bark and later loading it in a container and send it to another person in Maharashtra at Chiplun. The khair wood is later sent to other states across the country. The khair trees in the government forest land in Chikhli were also cut illegally and brought to Arjun Patel, through nexus.”
Sources also said that an “alert citizen” in Navsari district secretly installed a spy camera in the woman forester’s office in Chikhli.
Videos of her suspicious activities, including her counting the bribe money received from smugglers in the office, went viral on social media. In the videos, another forest officer (the RFO) was also seen visiting her office, frequently, and they appeared to discuss money taken illegally from the Khair wood smugglers of Navsari district.
After the video cropped up on social media, a team of senior forest officers from Gandhinagar landed in Navsari and reached Chikhli and Vansda forest offices. On checking the documents in the offices, the officials found several incriminating documents. The teams found involvement of the woman forester and the RFO in the “nexus of Khair wood smugglers.”
The team then prepared a report and sent it to senior officers.
On Thursday, the Chief Conservator of Forest, Valsad district, B. Suchindra, suspended the woman forester (Hetal Patel). The suspension order states that she would “remain suspended until the investigation into the entire issue is completed.”
On Friday, Deputy Secretary of the Forest and Environment Department, Asav Gadhvi, issued a suspension order against RFO Rathod.
Chief Conservator of Forest, Valsad division, B Suchindra, and Assistant Conservator of Forest, Lokesh Bhardwaj, on Friday, were unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts to contact them.
Sources in the Valsad forest department said that Khair wood from South Gujarat, Valsad, Navsari, and Dangs is in high demand, as it is used in medicines, Catechu (Paan kaththa), paan masala, etc. The Khair wooden logs procured from farmers in South Gujarat are transported to Chiplun, Maharashtra, in large containers. Such large wooden logs are cut into pieces in the sawmills at Chiplun and later sent to Uttar Pradesh and other neighbouring states.
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