Drones help arrest of 6 timber mafias in Keonjhar; logs worth over Rs 50 lakh seized 

In a major breakthrough, a joint team of police and Forest department officials managed to arrest six timber mafias by monitoring their movement by deploying drones at Santarapur village under Ghatagaon block in Keonjhar district on Saturday morning. 

The joint team also seized valuable wooden logs comprising Sal, Saguan and Gambhari worth over Rs 50 lakh from their possession.

According to sources, the Forest Department officials and police deployed a couple of drones to monitor the mafia on Friday night. 

After keeping a close vigil on them, the joint team subsequently launched a raid at the village early on Saturday morning and nabbed the criminals.

“Every time we tried to intercept them, they used to retaliate us by pelting stones, attacking us with iron rods. Though we were successful on several occasions, many times they managed to flee from our clutches,” said HD Dhanraj, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Keonjhar.

Sharing details about the operation to arrest the mafias, Dhanraj said, “It was challenging, but not impossible. We had deployed a couple of drones to monitor their activity and they were all aware of it,” Dhanraj added.

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The village was once used to be a citadel for the timber mafias as it was inaccessible for the police and Forest Department officials. However, with the new BJP government coming to power in the State, the police, Forest and Revenue department officials have changed their strategies and taking action against the mafias, sources said.