Bijnor: After taking the helm of affairs in Uttar Pradesh, the Adityanath Yogi governbment is tightening noose around poachers and timber mafias.Bijnor forest officials have sent a list of more than 12 poachers and timber mafia to the forest department, following a direction by the state government.Poachers and timber mafias are quite active in Bijnor district, which has large area under forest cover and wildlife sanctuary. There are several instances when carcasses of wild animals were found in the area.According to data available with the forest department, of the total 4,04,900 hectares in Bijnor district, 54,898 are under green cover.Bijnor district has as many as 11 forest ranges, of which two Bijnor and Chandpur fall under Hanstinapur sanctuary.Besides, the district has two main reserves —Amangarh tiger reserve and Rajpur elephant reserve area — which have 13 tigers, 35 elephants, more than 100 leopards, beers, deer, baarah singha, kakad etc and are covered by saal, shisham and kher trees, attracting poachers and timber mafias.Every year, a dozen of cases relating to poaching and felling of kher trees are registered in the district under forest crime sections.In 2013, two tigers were killed, while two years back, one deer was shot dead. Besides these, leopards, turtles, cheetal, sambhar and antilope were also killed by poachers.A few days back, the forest department caught a gang, including a woman, with the horns of a stag. They had come from Haryana. Several local poachers are also active in the forest.Timber mafia are active in Najibabad area, and cut kher trees, used for makin ‘katha’ for paan, from Najibabad and Barapur ranges and sell at hefty prices.Besides kher, saal and shisham trees are cut illegally and sold. kher, saal and shisham are very costly and fetch huge profit to the mafia.Interesting, most of the poachers and timber mafias speed away from the scene. Only the cases are made against them. Cases against timber mafias have been going on many years. Unfortunately the forest department is under staff.Giving details, division forest officer M Semmaran said, “The government has asked for a list of timber mafia and poachers, who are active in the forest region. We have prepared a list of 12 poachers and 17 timber mafia with complete details. The list has been sent to the authorities concerned and the district administration. A joint operation, including police and forest department, will be launched soon to nab the mafias.”Semmaran further added, “We will send the details of poachers and timber mafia to all police stations of the district to curb their nefarious activities. Mafia committing forest crime will be bo0ked under Goonda Act.”

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