259 illegal khair wood logs seized in Yamunanagar

The Forest Department has recovered 259 illegal logs of khair wood from two separate places in Yamunanagar district over the past week. Khair wood is widely used to prepare katha (an ingredient in paan) and in several ayurvedic medicines.

In the latest incident, Forest Guard Ankit Kumar, incharge of Kot beat, stated in his police complaint that while patrolling the reserved forest of Taharpur village around 4 am on August 19, he spotted two men cutting khair trees.

“Seeing me, they ran away from the spot. Four khair trees were cut illegally from there. We have recovered 19 logs of khair wood,” Ankit Kumar told the police.

Earlier, on the night of August 15, Forest Department officials had recovered 240 khair logs from a truck in Jagadhri. Forest Guard Rajinder Singh, who filed the complaint, said he and another employee were patrolling the Darpur forest area when they received a tip-off.

According to the complaint, they were informed that illegal khair logs would be transported to Jagadhri in a car from Jatanwala village. They chased the suspected car but lost it inside a colony.

“When we were searching the said car, we saw a truck there. We saw that the truck was loaded with khair wood. We recovered 240 logs of illegal khair wood from the truck,” Rajinder Singh said in his complaint.

Based on the recovery, an FIR has been registered at the City police station, Jagadhri.