Byas Shankar Upadhyaya

Rajbiraj, March 22:

Smuggling of medicinal herbs from community forests in Saptari district is on the rise. Locals say herbs including Pawan Bokra, Amala, Rittha, Satabari and Sarpagandha used for manufacturing medicines, are being smuggled out of the district. Prem Narayan Yadav of Mallekpur-5 said a gang is involved in the illegal trade that is taking herbs from community forests, situated north of the highway, and sneaking them into India across the Kosi river.

Yadav said on Friday morning, local youths had seized five sacks of India-bound medicinal herbs but were forced to release them under pressure from villagers. A smuggler said they buy herbs for Rs 20 per kg and take them to India on boats under the cover of darkness at nights. One day after the Mallekpur youths caught the herbs, a district forest office staff handed over five women with illegal herbs to the Area Forest Office, Kanchanpur after arresting them at Bhardaha.

The arrested persons are Chandrawati Khatun, Purani Sharma, Jubeda Khatun, Tanijala Khantun and Kojawati Khatun of Hanumannagar VDC. The AFO chief Arbind Kumar Berma said the women were sent to DFO. Herbs smuggled out of the community forests are found in places like Kanchapur, Kosi Barrage and Mahuli. Locals are concerned that the act of scraping down tree barks by herb collectors could contribute to deforestation. They accuse inaction on the part of forest users’ group for the increase in such incidents of smuggling. District forest officer, Arun Kumar Sribastav said it was difficult to file cases because the persons would almost always manage to flee, leaving behind the herbs. Conceding that smuggling was rampant in many forests of the district, Sribastav said, “We have recently seized 20 quintals of herbs with the help of the police. We are quite aware and alert about the dangers of smuggling as there has been rising reports of unabated smuggling in precious herbs”.