LAMAHI: District Forest Office Dang has expedited forest observation and monitoring activities in the wake of rampant incidents of smuggling and theft of woods from the community and government forests in the district. A monitoring team seized sal woods from Asani in Satabariya Village Development Committee yesterday.

According to Damodar Upadhyaya, officer, Area Forest Office Gadhawa, a team led by assistant forest officer, Amar Kant Jha had seized the logs on a tip-off.

The monitoring team had launched a raid on Yadav Furniture at Asani and seized 56 sets of sawed wood and 65 cubic feet of sal timber. Jha said that founder of the industry has been arrested. The team has also stepped up its investigation in Rajpur VDC. Earlier, the team had observed forests in other VDCs too.