Raipur
A joint team of Chhattisgarh’s Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve (USTR) officials, Odisha Police, and Nabarangpur Forest Department personnel busted an interstate timber smuggling network in Daspur village, Odisha, on 24 August 2026.
Acting on intelligence regarding illegal wood movement along the Chhattisgarh–Odisha border, the team reached the spot at 10 am. Odisha forest authorities issued search warrants, and officers launched a search operation at 12:30 pm.
The team deployed a thermal-imaging drone to map the premises and identify storage points. It also used Tina, a sniffer dog from the squad, to locate hidden timber.
Raids on three premises in Daspur village yielded 3 cubic metres of illegal timber. Authorities identified the property owners as Krishna Kant Haldar alias Kishno Haldar, Akhil Sarkar, an electricity department lineman, and Nagen Talukdar. Officers pasted notices under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita at the houses of Haldar and Sarkar, who are on the run. They served a notice directly to Talukdar.
An initial inquiry indicates that timber seized from Sarkar’s premises was procured locally during tree-felling for power line maintenance. Haldar received teakwood directly from the Raighar Range.
USTR officials asked the Divisional Forest Officer, Nabarangpur, to conduct an audit of the Raighar Range Office and its past seizures. USTR and the Regional Chief Conservator of Forests, Koraput, sent requests to the Raighar Range Office seeking seizure memo details for previous raids under Preliminary Offence Report (POR) 170/16 dated 22 January 2025 and POR 01/17 dated 6 October 2024. A pickup vehicle and teakwood were impounded in those operations. The range office has not furnished details, delaying prosecution.
The USTR registered an offence under POR 96/13 dated 24 August 2026 under forest laws. Measurement of the seized wood continues.
In December 2023, USTR and Odisha forest personnel held 30 people in the Daspur–Sonpur–Raighar belt after teak felled in Chhattisgarh’s Chamenda area was transported into Odisha.
Officials said an investigation will trace the source, transit channels, financiers, and buyers of the wood, and verify if any seized stock came from government custody.
