Valuable wooden logs hidden inside quarries seized in Belanje

Karkala: An incident of illegal tree cutting and hiding it inside stone quarries came to light in Belanje forest region in Kuchchoor village municipal.

The forest officials suspect that trees were stolen from the forest region. The search operation for the wooden logs was started on Friday and on Monday they were found hidden inside stone quarries. President of Anti Kasturi Rangan Report Implementation committee, Amruth Kumar Shetty and Naveen Shetty of Belanje were named as accused in the case.

Teams led by range forest officer here, Satish N, raided several places including Belanje and Kopparagundi, and traced illegally stored logs, and transported them to the Seetanadi forest office premises. As the officials suspect that more logs are concealed under the earth, they have continued with the search operation.

It is gathered that the forest office has received directions to dismiss staff employed for patrolling these forest areas as they have failed to detect and stop this large scale theft, considering the extent of loss.

Kundapur deputy forest conservator Ravishankar, assistant forest conservator Kishore Kumar, and other high ranking officials have rushed to Hebri to take stock of the situation and guide the operations.

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