Summary:
NAINITAL: A team of around 100 forest officials, including divisional forest officers, range officers and forest guards, raided various spots on the Gaula river bed in Kumaon on Saturday as part of an intensive crackdown on illegal mining.Nitish Mani Tripathi, divisional forest officer of Terai-East division, said, “There were no discrepancies. Sources said that the raid will continue till evening.“The attack on forest officials will not be taken lightly. We want to make sure that our department is capable of handling hooliganism of mining mafia,” said Parag Madhukar Dhakate, conservator of forest, Western Circle, Kumaon division. CCTVs were working fine and no overloading was there.”Combined teams of three forest divisions along with trainee officers from forest training institute, Haldwani, started the raid around 8 am from gates of Gaula river in Haldwani.The raids came after an attack earlier this week on a team of forest officials who were inspecting vehicles in order to check illegally mined river bed material from being carried away. A group of eight people had attacked the officials and also tore off their uniforms..