Gurez (Bandipora), Feb 13: The Government is losing timber worth lakhs of rupees in Gurez every year with avalanches uprooting the trees and streaming them into Neelum River on way to Pakistan Administered Kashmir.
 According to the officials of Forest Department, thousands of timber logs and huge quantity of firewood flow down with the water towards PaK wherein the people collect them at Astor and subsequently sell them. 
 “In Gurez, most forests are around Neelum and avalanches uproot scores of trees from November to April every year,” the officials said adding the forest had been dived into four blocks of Kanzalwan, Budugam, Buduaab and Dawar block, all of which were avalanches prone zones.
 "Before 1947, a boom was erected at Astor for stopping the timber, which was later distributed in the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir. Now the collected timber is used by the people in PaK" said Abdul Aziz, who has been to Astor in 2007.
 He said the "J&K Government should erect same type of booms in Gurez to stop the logs from flowing towards PaK.”
 Admitting that scores of logs flow down from Gurez towards PaK, Forest Range Officer Muhammad Shafi Dar said "We are helpless though we tried to construct barricades around forests." He said the construction of booms in the river would be taken up with the senior officials in the department.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 13 Feb 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 13 Feb 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:00:00 IST