Arunachal: Govt taking actions on illegal timber activities- Mama Natung
ITANAGAR- The Environment and Forest Minister Mama Natung informed the assembly on Tuesday that government of Arunachal Pradesh is taking serious actions on all illegal timber activities going around in the state.
Responding to a Zero hour discussion raised by Borduria-Bogapani MLA Wanglin Lowangdong on illegal felling of trees in Deomali Forest Division in Tirap District, the Forest Minister said that Arunachal Pradesh occupies highest forest coverage in the country with 80% of its total land area under forest.
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The department is strictly taking measures to curb illegal timber activities and arrested many persons involved in such operations, besides seizing timbers.
He said that in order to check timber activities in the Tirap district, around 7-8 wood based industries of the area have been closed down and sought the cooperation of local panchayat leaders and public area to control such illegal operations.
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The Minister also stressed on coordination meetings in all boundary areas with neighboring states to solve the issue of illegal operations.
Informing about the Air Gun Surrender Abhiyan mission, Natung also called upon one and to surrender air gun, hand sawing machine etc to make the state free from all these.
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Earlier, raising the issue, Lowangdong said that such illegal timber operations result in loss of revenue to the state exchequer. He told that 1022 logs amounting to 50.17 lakhs have been seized from Deomali area during the last year. Seeking strict regulations and measures from the government to control the illegal activities in the forest division, the legislator suggested for more man power and better technologies to deal with the matter.
