Forest officials detect illegal mining in Manipur reserved forest, stones quarries seized

Imphal: Forest officials have found many small scale mining inside and along the reserved forest boundary of Kanglatongbi Kangpokpi Reserved Forest and seized some stone quarries on Wednesday.

DFO Kangapokpi, N.Ganesh along with forest officials and staffs conducted a route march along the boundaries of the reserved forest.

Patrolling of around 20 Sq km area was covered alongside route march to assess the anthropogenic pressures across the reserved forest, the DFO said.

Route march is conducted to show the presence of the department and it is also planned to conduct more such exercises in the near future. It is proposed to put more checkposts on the boundaries of the reserved forest for checking of such illegal activities in and around it, he added.

“It was found many small scale mining were being done inside and along the RF boundary. Some of the stones quarries were seized along with a truck loaded with full of stones and cases will be initiated against those,” Ganesh said.

Range forest officers were directed to make a fresh assessment of encroachers. DFO has issued strict warning to those who were involved in small scale Mining from the rivulets of Kanglatongbi Kangpokpi Reserved Forest, he added.

The joint survey of Kanglatongbi Kangpokpi Reserved Forest is in progress. ACF Kanggpokpi and range forest officers were also present in the route march and patrol.