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| The carcass of the deer recovered on Wednesday. A Telegraph picture |
Dibrugarh, Nov.6 : Forest personnel today recovered the carcass of a deer following an encounter between forest guards and a gang of poachers at Abhaypur reserve forest in Upper Assam’s Sivasagar district.
After the encounter, which began at 7.30 this morning and lasted for nearly 15 minutes, the poachers escaped unhurt, but they could not carry their booty — a full-grown male deer, which the forest personnel recovered later.
The Abhaypur reserve forest, with a total area of around 6,737 hectares, shares a 20km inter-state border with Nagaland and there are allegations that most of these gangs operate from the neighbouring state.
Today’s encounter took place when a 10-member team of armed forest guards went for a routine patrol in a section under the Kherbari camp of the reserve forest.
“When the patrol team noticed some suspicious movement in the area, it sounded an alert. But the poachers responded with bullets, forcing our men to retaliate,” range officer of the Napuk forest range office Bijoy Saikia said.
The poachers used country made weapons, which are found in plenty across the border in Nagaland.
After the encounter, the matter was reported to the Napuk range office and an extensive search was launched in the area.
During the search, the carcass of the deer was found. The animal was shot and probably the poachers were trying to smuggle it to Nagaland where venison is in great demand.
“The deer weighed nearly 20kg. We will conduct a post-mortem before disposing it,” Saikia said.
The forest department has lodged an FIR with Sonari police station and another round of search operation will be carried out on Thursday.
Although there have been a lot of hue and cry to protect the reserve forest from poachers and illegal timber smugglers, the state government and the forest department continue to neglect it, because of which the poachers and smugglers have a free run in the reserve.
Earlier, there were four camps inside the reserve to man the huge territory, but because of shortage of staff and inadequate infrastructure two of the camps were abandoned. The two camps, which are still operational, are the Kherbari and Lesai, a source said.
“Moreover, our men are always short on almost every front — be it ration, uniform, ammunition, boots. There is no electricity, no solar lamps, no roads, not even search lights. At times we hear trees being felled during the nights but we cannot go out because of non-availability of resources,” the forest department source said.
Apart from poachers, militants, mainly Ulfa, use the reserve forest to carry out operations in Sivasagar district and many other parts of Upper Assam. After carrying out their operations, the rebels easily get back to their camps in Mon district of Nagaland.
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| The carcass of the deer recovered on Wednesday. A Telegraph picture |
Dibrugarh, Nov.6 : Forest personnel today recovered the carcass of a deer following an encounter between forest guards and a gang of poachers at Abhaypur reserve forest in Upper Assam’s Sivasagar district.
After the encounter, which began at 7.30 this morning and lasted for nearly 15 minutes, the poachers escaped unhurt, but they could not carry their booty — a full-grown male deer, which the forest personnel recovered later.
The Abhaypur reserve forest, with a total area of around 6,737 hectares, shares a 20km inter-state border with Nagaland and there are allegations that most of these gangs operate from the neighbouring state.
Today’s encounter took place when a 10-member team of armed forest guards went for a routine patrol in a section under the Kherbari camp of the reserve forest.
“When the patrol team noticed some suspicious movement in the area, it sounded an alert. But the poachers responded with bullets, forcing our men to retaliate,” range officer of the Napuk forest range office Bijoy Saikia said.
The poachers used country made weapons, which are found in plenty across the border in Nagaland.
After the encounter, the matter was reported to the Napuk range office and an extensive search was launched in the area.
During the search, the carcass of the deer was found. The animal was shot and probably the poachers were trying to smuggle it to Nagaland where venison is in great demand.
“The deer weighed nearly 20kg. We will conduct a post-mortem before disposing it,” Saikia said.
The forest department has lodged an FIR with Sonari police station and another round of search operation will be carried out on Thursday.
Although there have been a lot of hue and cry to protect the reserve forest from poachers and illegal timber smugglers, the state government and the forest department continue to neglect it, because of which the poachers and smugglers have a free run in the reserve.
Earlier, there were four camps inside the reserve to man the huge territory, but because of shortage of staff and inadequate infrastructure two of the camps were abandoned. The two camps, which are still operational, are the Kherbari and Lesai, a source said.
“Moreover, our men are always short on almost every front — be it ration, uniform, ammunition, boots. There is no electricity, no solar lamps, no roads, not even search lights. At times we hear trees being felled during the nights but we cannot go out because of non-availability of resources,” the forest department source said.
Apart from poachers, militants, mainly Ulfa, use the reserve forest to carry out operations in Sivasagar district and many other parts of Upper Assam. After carrying out their operations, the rebels easily get back to their camps in Mon district of Nagaland.
