AR confiscate illegal timber

Our Correspondent Imphal, Jan 25 (EMN): Troopers of the Assam Rifles deployed along the Imphal-Moreh road are said to have confiscated a huge quantity of timber illegally being transported across the Indo-Myanmar border, according to Assam Rifles sources. In the early hours of Jan. 24, a batch of 16 fully loaded trucks was found to be moving from the border commercial town of Moreh to Imphal. Noticing the uncommon movement of such a number of carriers at odd hours, the Assam Rifles personnel halted the vehicles. It was found during an inquiry then that timber was being transported without official permits from the Manipur Forest department. The details of it were reportedly communicated to the divisional forest officer of Thoubal who responded by sending a team to check the consignment. After assessment by the forest officials the value of the seized timber was assessed to be worth INR 34 lakh. The entire consignment was later handed over by the Assam Rifles over to officials of the district forest department, the source claimed.