Kalyanpur Municipality-4, Bhokraha, Santosh Wood Industry, locals saw wood from the community forest being stored on January 21 last. When the locals inquired, it was revealed that the wood belonged to the Lakshminiyan Community Forest in Kalyanpur-7 Bheria. They immediately informed the police and forest office.
A team from Area Police Office Kalyanpur and Sub Division Forest Office, Mirchaiya recovered 59.72 cubic feet of Sisau pellets and 16.11 cubic feet of pellets worth about two lakh rupees from the industry.
Two weeks after the wood was recovered, no one involved has been arrested. It has been found that the Division Forest Office is trying to cover up this incident. Although Kantipur found the voucher of the forest office where the wood was seized from the industry, Shailendra Kumar Mishra, DFO of Siraha, is claiming that the wood was seized from outside and not from the industry. On the question of why he is lying about the timber, he said, "No matter where it is seized, we are investigating." Vijay Yadav, chairman of the Laxminian Community Forest Consumer Committee, admits that he himself took wood to the industry. He claimed that he had done this work after consulting with everyone including Kalyanpur-7 Ward President, Sub Division Forest Office Mirchaiya. "I did this work on everyone's advice," he said, "the ward president also asked for some wood in the name of the ward office, about a month ago I sold wood and gave financial support to the Kalyanpur police to build a vehicle." Can such a conversation be done over the phone? He said, "I can't talk about this matter on the phone."
On the other hand, Mahendra Yadav, head of Sub Division Forest Office, Mirchaiya, said that he was not informed about this matter. He said that although a decision should be taken by the consumer committee to extract wood from the forest and formal information should be given to his office, they have not completed any process.
The Treasurer of the Forest Consumer Committee, Navitakumari Yadav, along with the chairman of the committee, claimed that they brought wood from the forest without even giving them general information. He is also accused of abandoning the entire forest in collusion with other agencies, including the chairman of the forest.
Five days after the illegally felled wood from the Lakshminian community forest was recovered and taken to the industry, a fire broke out in the forest on the morning of January 26. Due to the fire, the trunks and roots of the trees that were illegally cut from the forest have been burned many times before.
Similarly, the treasurer Yadav informed that the newly planted plants were also burnt and destroyed. According to him, new trees were planted in the community forest last year at a cost of 68 lakh rupees. He estimated that the forest was damaged by fire to the tune of 30 lakh rupees.
Locals allege that this fire was planned to destroy the evidence of deforestation. "It cannot be a coincidence that the fire broke out as soon as the incident of deforestation was made public with the cooperation of the forest chairman, the people's representatives, the police and the staff," a local said, "Anyone can understand why and who started the fire here." According to Lahan, the division forest office is investigating the matter.
