Malkangiri: Forest department officials seized a teakwood-laden tractor worth lakhs of rupees in the wee hours of Saturday and arrested two persons in this connection while they were smuggling wood.
Malkangiri Forest Range Officer Jagannath Bisoi constituted a team of forest personnel and began night patrolling at MV-18 on the basis of Vigilance inputs. Meanwhile, they intercepted a Kamaliguda-bound tractor coming from Padganpalli and found ten teakwood logs in the tractor trolley. The estimated cost of the seized wood will be several lakh rupees, said Bisoi.
The officials shifted the seized wood to Malkangiri range office.
The officials who intercepted the tractor with the teakwood included Forester Mohan Gudia, Dibakar Jena, forest guards P Santosh, Rabi Narayan Khandual and Sudhir Murmu among others.
