Team Herald
PONDA: A khair wood smuggling racket was busted by the Ponda forest officers by arresting three persons and seizing wood near Banastarim Bridge, on Tuesday evening.
Besides, a Tempo Trax vehicle was also seized for transporting the illegally felled khair trees. A chainsaw, an axe, and a bill hook etc were also seized in the raid.
Three accused persons, namely, Hulgappa Biradar, Shivappa Hunkuntti and Devappa Balappa Naikar, all natives of Karnataka, were arrested while three others managed to flee from the spot.
The smuggling racket was busted by using the intelligence collected from a person arrested in a raid at Devasu, Korgao in Pernem. The accused Damodar G Nagvekar, a resident of Devsu, is operating a licenced khair wood kiln but was using illegally cut khair wood as raw material.
According to the forest team, the seized khair wood is worth Rs 3 lakh.
The raiding team comprised of RFO Vishwas Chodankar, Hanumant Dessai, Rajender Gaonkar, Prajot Naik, Devu Shetkar, Satyvan Gawas, Akshay Gauns, Sham Dhargalkar, Anand Naik and others.
Khair (acacia catechu) is a forest produce as per Indian Forest Act, 1927, and its illegal felling and transportation is a criminal offence.
