Following the complaints of unchecked illegal logging in Dhading, the District Forest Office (DFO) has increased its surveillance.  

The DFO employees have also detained chairpersons of three community forests on timber smuggling charge and seized 311 cubic feet of timber from various parts of the district. District Forest Officer Imanath Paudel said the chairman of Kailash Community Forest, Bishnu Bharati and the chairman of Baikuntha Chepang Community Forest, Ram Chandra Chepang, were being held for investigation into their alleged involvement in timber smuggling.

The DFO launched its investigation after was reported that several community forest users’ groups in the district, in collusion with timber smugglers, were cutting down trees on the pretext of providing wood to the quake victims.