Alot (Ratlam district, Madhya Pradesh): Though people are being advised to remain at home, the wood mafia in Alot tehsil is cutting hundreds of trees daily and is taking tractors full of cut trees in broad daylight through the roads.
Amid ongoing pandemic when the majority of government departments are busy containing novel coronavirus, hundreds of trees have been chopped off right under the nose of district administration.
One such incident came to fore on Wednesday afternoon when Taal tehsildar Swati Tiwari and her team stopped a tractor-trolley transporting logs of freshly cut trees. Tiwari and her team seized the trolley and booked driver.
When tehsildar Tiwari asked driver to furnish papers of wood, he couldn’t. Administrative officials prepared panchnama and sent the trolley to Taal police custody.
Alot SDM Rajesh Kumar Shukla said administration will continue action against those involved in illegal activities. Free Press had raised the issue prominently about how the wood mafia calls the shots in tehsil.
No one dares to stop the wood mafia, said a local resident. Even if such transporters are handed over to police, they go scot-free due to administrative or political pressure, another local said.
