Sitting up and taking notice after cases of a lone elephant or rhino getting stuck in the soft soil once covered by boulders surfaced, the state forest department has started a crackdown on boulder mafia illegally ferrying these large rocks smoothed by erosion to construction projects within the state and Bangladesh.
The absence of boulders has its fallout on the movement of the creatures of the wild, as accustomed to lumber along on beaten paths strewn with boulders, these heavy creatures tend to lose their footing on soft surfaces and injure themselves only to find themselves at the mercy of the elements and carnivores.
Usually, a tiger or a wild dog pack or a leopard or a snow leopard would give a wide berth to an elephant or a rhinoceros. But they are dead meat if caught stuck in a river bed. And as they abandon old routes, elephant herds often find themselves entering human settlements, leading to man-animal conflict as a chain reaction.
The forest department pulled up its socks following the interception of 100-odd boulder loaded trucks recently, it was learnt. This is the tip of the iceberg as it has also come to the department’s notice that hundreds of trucks loaded with boulders from north Bengal roll into Bangladesh through Changrabandha and several other points, sources stated. Boulder theft is not only affecting wildlife. The course of the rivers which are marked with boulders are also changing in their absence, it was learnt from the forest department sources.
The smuggled boulders are usually sourced from the districts of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar. Trucks roll into reserve forest areas to smuggle boulders from the beds of Jaldhaka, Teesta, Mudki, Raidak and Sankosh rivers. Removing boulders from the river bed needs the Chief Wild Life Warden’s approval. Obviously, the boulder mafia operates sans any official nod.