Fearing attacks by timber smugglers well-equipped with sophisticated weapons, forest guards rarely venture out in the forest area. [break]
Although the Department of Forest (DoF) has sanctioned 51 posts of forest guards in Dang, only 12 forest guards are on duty. All of them are based at the District Forest Office (DFO), Dang. They patrol the forest only occasionally.
“We have insufficient forest guards. Worse, they do not have adequate and advanced weapons,” says Ishwori Poudel, acting District Forest Officer (DFO) of Dang.
For 12 forest guards, there are only six 303 rifles. But, timber smugglers have advanced pistols. “We can not simply order forest guards to go with traditional weapons to fight them,” says Poudel.
Only on Thursday, a patrol of forest guards was attacked by pistol-wielding timber smugglers in the western part of forest in Dang. In retaliation, forest guards could fire only one bullet.
Thursday´s skirmish was only an example of how powerful and fearless timber smugglers have become. The dominance of timber smugglers over forest guards has led to rampant deforestation in Dang district. Following Thursday´s firing, a tractor laden with timbers was seized.
Acting DFO Poudel says police have yet not returned weapons to the forest guards. “Police say the weapons we handed over to them during the insurgency were lost,” Poudel says. “We have managed to get only six rifles from Bardiya National Park (BNP).”
According to Poudel, timber smuggling is rampant especially in Deukhuri forest area of Dang. National forest has spread in an area of over 93,000 hectares of land in Dang. Almost 100,000 hectares of forest area have already been handed over to several Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs).
“Community forest area is well protected as the whole community is dedicated to protect it,” Poudel says. “But, national forest is under threat from smugglers as our forest guards lack sufficient and advanced weapons.”
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