Non-timber forest products like amla, bay leaves, chiraito, yarchagumba and the likes are being taken to India without permission, mainly from seven districts in the region. “There is no checking on the way and the trend of taking one herb with permission for another has also increased in connivance with forest officials,” claimed the secretary of the Community Forest Consumers Federation of Dadeldhura, Chandra Dev Bohara. [break]
Locals claim herbs have been smuggled from villages in inner Tarai of Dadeldhura, and lower swarad region of Baitadi and Darchula. The smugglers are also using their contacts with forest officials to take banned herbs like bark of kafal and walnut trees, and panchaunle from Tarai districts like Kailali and Kanchanpur.
Even forest officials concede that smugglers have set up collection centers at different places and smuggle the herbs through bordering villages. They collect medicinal herbs at Choud and Sirsha of Sirsha VDC and Rupal and Devaldivyapur of Dadeldhura district, according to locals.
Different points of five VDCs in Dadeldhura, 12 VDCs in Baitadi and 13 in Darchula in the Nepal-India border are massively being used in the illegal trade.
“Our estimate is that revenue worth around Rs 100 million can be generated if smuggling was stopped and the herbs were exported through these three districts alone,” secretary Bohara claimed. He said most of the villages in these districts don´t even know that these herbs cannot be sold without legal permission.
Forest officials claim that they have been trying their best but have not been able to control smuggling. “We banned export of medicinal herbs from Dadeldhura last year but forest products of the district were ferried with permission letters of other districts,” forest officer at District Forest Office, Dadeldhura Rajesh Shah claimed.
Around six quintals of walnut bark worth hundreds of thousand of rupees was seized by police from Ghanteshwar VDC, Doti a few days ago. Assistant forest officer in Doti Pushpa Raj Joshi said the district forest office is taking measures to control the increasing smuggling of herbs.
Chief of Dadeldhura District Forest Office Dhani Chanda Thakuri said his office is short of manpower to tackle the smuggling. “However we have increased patrols and we require help from everyone,” Thakuri added.
He also accused political leaders of patronizing the illegal trade. “Forest officials claim that they face immense political pressure to release smugglers,” Thakuri claimed.
Local traders are also angry at the smuggling of medicinal herbs worth millions of rupees as their trade has been affected. “The smugglers are earning much more than the local traders,” argued Surendra Bhatta, a local trader.
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