Timber smuggling: Deforestation continues unchecked in Diamer valley

More than 4,000 trees were chopped in Botogah valley in the last three days.

GILGIT:

Timber mafia in Gilgit-Baltistan’s (G-B) Diamer valley continues to sweep woodlands, making a mockery of the government’s efforts to stop deforestation.

On Tuesday, G-B Chief Secretary Younas Dhaga suspended 10 forest department officials for failing to curb tree felling in Diamer’s Thore valley.

Divisional forest officer Saleemullah and Range Forest Officer Qadar Jan were among the ones suspended while temporary staff, Abdul Wajid, Naveed Alam and Zaman, were terminated from service. A day later, six more junior employees in Diamer were suspended by the forest department for the same reason.

The measures, however, do not seem to have affected the timber mafia as more than 4,000 trees have been cut from Botogah valley since Tuesday.

“Trees are being chopped at a large-scale,” said Faizullah, a resident of Chilas, while confirming the figure. “The freshly chopped trees were brought here (Chilas) on tractors,” he told The Express Tribune.

An official from the information cell said they have constituted a committee to probe into the deforestation.

The felling has confirmed widespread fears that timber smugglers will use the Forest Policy, which lifted a decade-old ban on transportation of four million cubic feet of timber in Diamer district, to smuggle the freshly-cut timber.

The controversial policy was approved by former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on March 15, a day before his term in office expired. While the policy only allows transporting old stock, the mafia is accused of smuggling fresh timber with it.

“The fresh stock will also be transported with the old, and ultimately sold for higher prices,” said a Chilas-based journalist affiliated with a regional newspaper.

In Diamer, the mafia pays Rs20-30 per cubic foot to the local owners. The same amount of timber is sold for around Rs2,000 to Rs3,000 outside G-B. With the connivance of officials, smugglers then register the illegal timber in official records.

Even though Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif cancelled the policy immediately after assuming office, the G-B government has taken up the matter with the federal government, which may revise the move.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2013.