/ Exposing The Timber Mafia

The Timber Mafia is one of the most powerful lobbies in India. Their reach is undoubtedly in the highest levels of Government -- in the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. Despite the strict laws and norms to prevent felling of trees the Timber Mafia in India is a multi-billion dollar business. The extent of illegal timber felling is not unknown to those who matter but no one has prevented it, perhaps because of fear of the timber mafia or probably as is diplomatically said ‘compulsions of the individuals’.

The forests actually belong to no one. The Government owns most of the forests in the country. They do not belong to the people. So when the corrupt government officials decide to make money it is very easy. Cut the trees. The contractors are always eager to help them. In a country like India there is a great demand for wood and wooden products. Selling the wood is not a problem.

Why don’t the people respond to this problem? It’s simple. They do not get anything by doing so. The forest doesn’t belong to them. After all it’s government property. And then there are the criminals to be tackled, who get protection from the politicians, police and government officials. Then why should anyone take the risk? How does the mafia get permission to cut tree after the passing of the strict forests laws?



No country can afford to stop development projects. Electricity, water, roads, industry etc. must reach every man. After the new strict laws for conservation and protection of the forests, the timber mafia now get permission to fell trees in the pretext of the construction of development projects- dams, transmission lines, roads, water pipelines and canals, industries, business districts, recreation malls etc.

After getting the permission the work is very easy. The local police and forest officials get their share. Tree felling is done deep in the forest or where the people are unorganized so that people do not resist the tree felling. The display of muscle-power eliminates whatever resistance that a few locals dare to show. Trees are cut without any fear of law or officials responsible for implementing the laws. Normally many more trees are cut because once they are cut it is very difficult to find out from which tree the wood belongs. This can range from 10 times to 100 times the sanctioned number. Only that portion of the tree which is economically viable is taken away. All the police and forest check-posts located on the route of the movement of the wood are oiled and the passage of wood is unhindered.

After cutting of the trees, the mafia systematically covers up their tracks. They remove the evidences. All the unused portion of the tree which is unviable is taken by the gullible villagers as fuel wood. The roots of the trees are uprooted. Now there is no evidence that the tree existed there. In some places we have seen stumps of the cut trees are chiseled on all sides so that the exact volume of wood cannot be calculated. In a few places we have seen that trees are cut with powered saws so close to the ground that new foliage hides the evidence.

The biggest problem we face is that after a few years the evidences get destroyed because of natural reasons.

We give examples of the timber mafia’s operations.

1. In Tehri dam Transmission line construction 90000 trees were to be officially cut. The 90000 trees included only those trees which were of a particular girth. All trees which were less than that were not taken into accounted because the Government claimed that they did not have any commercial value. Further the number of 90000 was as per the counting done in 1993. The trees were cut in 2004. By then many trees which were not counted as trees would have become bigger. The government did not take them into consideration when it declared that 90000 trees were to be cut. Further the forests in Rajaji National Park are mixed forests. the government while sanctioning the felling of 90,000 trees did not mention about the number of smaller trees which surround the big trees because as per Forest Department nomenclature they are not considered trees and are categorised as poles, shrubs and bushes. This figure of 90000 does not include any of the shrubs and bushes, which are an integral component of the ecologically fragile forest of the Lower Himalayan region. Just when tree felling was taking place in Rajaji National Park, in the neighbouring Dehradun district a news channel reported that 800 Saal trees were cut. More trees would have been cut had the media and people not been alerted. Not a single arrest was made and all the people involved in the felling of trees managed to get away. This was only one reported story. There would be many such places which were not reported. The value of wood from one tree is about Rs. 30000 in the retail market. At least ten times more than the officially sanctioned number of trees would have been cut. The value of 900000 would have been over Rs. 2700,00,00,000. Firewood and salvaged timber would add to another ten percent. For the Tehri Dam transmission line construction atleast Rs. 3000 crores would have gone into the timber trade.

2. In the forest above Jaamal village in Dwarikhal Block of Pauri Garhwal district, a forest contractor of the neighbouring village whose wife is the elected village head (Gram Pradhan), got an application passed by the Forest Department to cut six trees for the use of villagers for construction of their houses, marriage ceremony and cremation of the dead. About 150 trees were cut and systematically removed practically on a daily basis. When some villagers raised an alarm the Forest Department confiscated some would which was released after some nominal fine. Probably the permission of six trees was used again and again and all the big trees in the forest of Janset and Bisten vanished.

3. The same contractor had sought permission to cut 24 trees against an application for cutting trees on the same grounds listed above for four villages. The same modus operandi was adopted. The only difference being that this time the trees sanctioned for the villagers was about 70 k.m. away from the villages. Nobody probably realised that no villager would travel 70 k.m. when trees are available within 5 k.m. of their villages. Here too several hundred trees would have been cut. When some local activist in the area where the trees were being cut filed a complaint with the District Magistrate that some wood was confiscated. The Forest Department officials tried their level best to cover-up the operations. Only some wood was confiscated. The contractor once again is roaming freely and has committed another crime in Pali village near Gumkhal in Pauri Garhwal District. Here too he got permission to cut 8 trees and cut more than 70 trees. Nothing happens to these criminals who take forest contracts.

4. Another example is that of the forest of Jioli danda near Debikhet in Dwarikhal Block in Pauri Garhwal District where for the past few years trees are being systemically cut. About 4000 trees have been cut and in many places the contractor has tried to remove the evidences. What surprises us is that how were so many trees cut in the forest without any action from the Government. Today all the big trees of Jioli danda have been cut. Most of these were pine trees measuring a height of about 25 meters and above.

5. If we are able to collect so much information from one block in Pauri Garhwal District imagine what would be the state in the whole Himalayas. Such instances are innumerable. Resort owners, industries, orchard owners have also recklessly cut trees in the Himalayas.