“You will never be able to rein in the smugglers,” said a bitter S.K. Mumtaz, who tips off forest and police officials of Ichoda in Telangana’s Adilabad district on alleged Multani timber smugglers from four local villages.
But he has been greeted with violence for his effort. A Multani himself, he was allegedly slapped by a police officer when he tried to pass on information about an incident in which forest personnel were beaten up by smugglers in July. “Evidently, the police officer is in collusion with the smugglers. He sent me away from the police station to protect the culprits,” he said.
Mr. Mumtaz’s story hints at the rot that has set in and the need for stronger measures to control illegal felling of forest trees. “The smugglers are in full flow these days, transporting eight to 10 lorry loads of teak out of the district every day,” said a forest officer, lamenting lack of police cooperation.
Nomadic people
There are no records of when Multanis came to Ichoda in Telangana and Chikli in Kinwat taluka of Maharashtra. It is assumed that the Nizam resettled the nomadic people in the villages of Keshavpatnam, Gundala, Jogipet and Yellamaguda in Ichoda around 1930. There is no mention of the community in the list of castes and tribes compiled by Syed Siraj ul Hassan in his book The Castes and Tribes of the H.E.H. TheNizam’s Dominions, published in 1920.
Originally from Multan in Pakistan, there are about 10,000 members, mainly farmers. Some youth may be engaged in timber smuggling, it is alleged, a trend that started four decades ago when demand for teak surged along with real estate activity in Hyderabad.
They have turned criminals and do not flinch even from physical attacks on forest personnel who intend to control their activities. Among their victims are forest beat officer B. Mantya Naik who was killed in December 2009.
All the teak in the ranges of Boath, Neredigonda and Ichoda, among others have been felled by the Multanis. They are now active in the forest near the villages of Fakirpet, Ragidubbanala, Timpur located opposite the Kuntala waterfall and Peesara.
The teak is felled in and taken in bullock carts to the villages or some dumps close by and loaded in lorries to be transported to saw mills in Nizamabad. The latter apparently enjoy the protection of politicians to be able to carry out their nefarious activities.
Rich earnings
The value of one lorry load of teak in the open market is between ₹ 5 lakh and ₹15 lakh depending upon the number of logs being transported. For records, seized teak worth ₹ 30 to 40 lakh is acutioned off at each of the forest timber depots and Ichoda and Khanapur.
Adilabad Collector Buddha Prakash M. Jyothi has launched an effort for development among Multanis, to make timber smuggling unattractive. “I have also written to Nizamabad Superintendent to keep under check illegal purchase and processing of teak by three saw mills in Nizamabad,” said Kawal Field Director of Project Tiger C. Sarvanan.
