By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 20 Oct: As the winter approaches, and the consumption fuelwood increases, the incidents of theft of wood from the depots of Forest Development Corporation increase. Sometimes, this theft also is aided by the local staff posted in the depots. In order to prevent such theft, the Forest Department has decided to install CCTV camaras in the FDC depots. The department hopes that this electronic surveillance will help it prevent wood theft and other illegal things from happening at the depots.
Sources in the department claim that, while in the depots located in the plains and around major cities, good quality of wood sometimes gets replaced quietly with poorer quality, large scale theft of wood happens every winter in particular in the depots located in the hills. In these cases, it is the local villagers involved in the theft of wood for use in the kitchen or to keep the rooms and cattle yards warm at night. So far, most efforts made by the Forest Corporation to prevent or curb wood theft have not yielded much results. However, with the installation of CCTV cameras, some positive effects can be expected.
As per the internal statistics of the Forest Department, at least about 750 cases of illegal tree cutting are being reported every year within the forest areas. In case of illegal felling, the forest department is not able to recover even 40 percent of the wood. Questions are raised therefore whether CCTV camaras will be really effective in curbing illegal felling and theft of the wood. Some experts claim that they can be successful only partially in the depots but will have no effect on illegal felling of trees and theft from the forests, also because, of connivance of forest officials behind such acts.
According to statistics, about 4,000 cases of illegal tree cutting were reported between 2016 and 2021. In this, it is estimated that about 4,000 cubic meters of wood was cut from these trees. Despite this, only about 1780 cubic meters of wood could be recovered.
On the other hand, Principal Secretary Forest RK Sudhanshu states that, in this regard, clear instructions have been given to the Forest Department to conduct periodic inspections and surprise inspections through DFOs. Apart from this, cases of theft also come to light in the forest lots of Forest Corporation. Due to which it has been decided that CCTVs will be installed in all the Forest Corporation depots, so that smuggling and thefts can be stopped.
