District police in Alipurduar seized 10 sophisticated chainsaws of German make from Jaigaon, the town that sits on the India-Bhutan border, on Tuesday and arrested a person in this connection.
The seizure of chainsaws, used in mass-scale felling of trees, has rung alarm bells among forest officials of the district. Like the police, the foresters also feel that these gadgets were brought to the district to chop trees in reserve forest areas.
Sources said that the police acted on a tip-off and searched Triveni Toll of Jaigaon, where they found the chainsaws at the home of Niraj Kumar Sha, 23.
“Altogether, 10 pieces of gasoline STIHL MS382 chainsaws were recovered from Niraj’s possession. During preliminary interrogation, he admitted he had illegally brought them from Bhutan,” said a police officer.
Each chainsaw, sources said, costs around Rs 55,000.
The police are probing why he had brought the chainsaws.
“Preliminary information suggests that this youth has links with timber smugglers and had planned to sell them the chainsaws that are lightweight and make much less sound than traditional saws while cutting trees,” said a source.
Alipurduar, owing to its forests, had the presence of timber smuggling rackets earlier too. Several seizures and arrests have been made in the past.
Thirty per cent ofAlipurduar is forestland. The district has well-known forested areas such as Jaldapara National Park and the Buxa Tiger Reserve.
“We want the police to investigate this case thoroughly. It is definitely a cause for concern if it is established that the chainsaws were supposed to be sold to timber smugglers,” said Parveen Kaswan, deputy field director (west) of Buxa Tiger Reserve.