The Chhattisgarh Forest Department has arrested five persons illegally transporting 24 pieces of sal wood valued at Rs 27,000 in Chhattisgarh’s Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve in the Gariaband Forest Range.
Officials also seized three pieces of sal wood and two wood cutting machines valued at Rs 55,000 from a person in a village in the forest range, an official press release said on Wednesday.
An official said that Kishore Kishore (Sondhoor village), Gulshan Kumar Sahu, Digesh Vishwakarma and Umeshwar Sahu of Ghatula village and Saurabh Ganda and Tijeshwar Gond of Mechka village were transporting the sal wood on their bikes.
Of these, five have been arrested while one managed to escape.