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Naxal activities hit bamboo business
WITH FOREST officials not venturing into Naxalites? affected areas in Balaghat, the bamboo business of Naxal hit district in Madhya Pradesh, has received a setback.
WITH FOREST officials not venturing into Naxalites’ affected areas in Balaghat, the bamboo business of Naxal hit district in Madhya Pradesh, has received a setback.
In the last financial year that just ended last month, Balaghat forest officials with the help of van samities, primarily having tribals managed to store about 33,000 notional tonnes of bamboos after cutting, while in the corresponding year nearly 67,000 notional tonnes collection was registered.
As a result of this, Balaghat district revenue collection from bamboo trade has come down to Rs 28 crore from Rs 33 crore in the financial year 2005.
Bamboo of Balaghat in Jabalpur division is used for commercial (in building purposes, especially in villages) and industrial (in paper mills) purposes and is considered to be of high quality in India. Last year, Naxals unleashed a reign of terror and bashed up several forest officials along with tribals, besides setting ablaze bamboo stores and trucks used in transportation.
So, frightened forest officials in the last financial year confined bamboo cutting to areas where the Naxals did not have a presence. In the last financial year, bamboo cutting was carried out in just 54 places, instead of 102 places.
“We had to limit the bamboo cutting because of Naxal threats. In 2005, we paid a heavy price as the bamboo transportation was badly hindered by the Naxals,” a forest official preferring anonymity said.
When contacted, Conservator of Forest Balaghat Circle OP Khare said they got the full co-operation from the police, adding that the work of transportation for the last financial year was almost over.
