GUWAHATI, April 17: Will the axe finally fall on illegal saw mills in the State? Maybe. State Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain on Tuesday issued orders to forest department officials to evict all illegal saw mills within a span of one month at a meeting of senior forest officers held at NEDFi House in Guwahati. The minister said that after the stipulated time period if any illegal saw mill was not shut down, the respective forest officials of that area would be held responsible for it and action would be taken against them.

Later, talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Hussain said that within one month Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) would be set up in all the 21 forest territorial divisions of the State to deal with the growing cases of man-animal conflicts. He also said that as part of the Chief Minister’s Seuji Dhara scheme, saplings worth Rs 1.68 crore would be planted on 11,600 hectares of land across the State in order to enhance the green cover in the State. The State Government is also mulling setting up of eco-development divisions outside the park areas of wildlife parks and sanctuaries in order to boost eco-tourism, said the minister.

The State Forest Department has also procured 500 SLRs, machine guns, AK-47s, revolvers and Sten Guns so that forest department personnel are better equipped to counter poaching, said Hussain, adding that that these state-of-the-art weapons will be made available to the forest personnel within two months. He also stressed imparting extensive arms training to forest personnel on the lines of that imparted to police personnel.