ROURKELA: Indian Forest officials and police have seized a truck that carried smuggled timber on a forest route between Relhatu and K Balang here the other day.
The forest department has intensified surveillance along border areas of Sundargarh district after it came to light that mafia were increasingly using forest routes to smuggle timber from the adjacent Maoist-infested Saranda forest in Jharkhand.
Rourkela Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Sanjeet Kumar said about 124 sleepers valued at over `5.5 lakh were seized and the truck was using three fake registration number plates.