On a cold February night in 2024, a Tata Spacio rolled into the Ludera forest check post in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh. What appeared to be a routine stop turned into the opening chapter of a sensational investigation.
Inside the vehicle lay 160 freshly cut maple knots, a high-value wood prized for handicrafts, and a power chainsaw. Three men, including driver Sanjay Kumar, were taken into custody.
“It looked like another small-scale smuggling attempt,” recalls IFS Kritagya Kumar, 2020-batch officer and Deputy Conservator of Forests Chamba. “But the more we questioned them, the more we realized we had stumbled onto something far bigger.”
In an exclusive conversation with Indian Masterminds, he shared details about the same.
MAPPING A HIDDEN NETWORK
Guided by Abhilash Damodran, Chief Conservator of Forests Chamba, Kumar’s team dug deeper. Interrogation revealed the key figure: Preethi Rawal, a seasoned maple smuggler operating across Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Uttarakhand for years.
With accomplices Tek Bahadur and Sanjay Kumar, Rawal had set up hidden camps in the Sillagharat beat, felling trees for days at a time. Money trails showed transfers of over ₹3,00,000 into Sanjay’s bank account from Nepali contacts.
By February 28, the forest department had traced another 22 hidden knots and arrested Rawal’s son Paras. Musa and Bashir, local facilitators, were soon caught, leading officers to secret caches in Kurtha village.
EXPANDING THE HUNT
Each interrogation exposed new layers. “Every night someone new emerged: a supplier here, a transporter there,” says Kumar. “We were racing the clock before word spread.”
On March 4, a late-night raid at Hotel Thakur Dhaba in Chamba unearthed eight Nepali nationals. Five admitted they were awaiting clear weather to re-enter the forest for more maple knots. Their confessions pointed to a bigger financier in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh – Funjok Lama, the man funding, sheltering, and exporting the contraband through Nepal to Tibet.
OPERATION “KING IN THE NORTH”
The breakthrough demanded an audacious interstate strike. From March 6 to 9, Kumar coordinated Operation King in the North with CCF Damodran, Range Officer Lower Chamba, and local police forces in Saharanpur.
A reconnaissance team verified addresses, while legal clearances and court permissions were secured in record time. “Speed was everything,” Kumar notes. “If even one accused got a tip-off, the network would vanish.”
In the pre-dawn hours of March 8, a 16-member strike team raided three Saharanpur locations simultaneously. The haul stunned even seasoned officers:
- 1330 maple knots
- Processing equipment and raw carving material
- Finished handicrafts
- ₹7,22,120 in Indian currency, ₹55,665 in Nepali cash, and 373 Chinese Yuan
- Six mobile phones packed with transaction records
Fifteen people were ultimately arrested across multiple states.
A CASE STILL UNFOLDING
The investigation continues under the Indian Forest Act (Sections 41, 42, 69), HP Forest Produce Transit Rules, and the Biological Diversity Act. Damage reports are being prepared; no FIR has yet been filed.
For Kumar, the mission is far from over. “This wasn’t just about seizing wood,” he says quietly. “It was about sending a message that Himachal’s forests are not for the taking.”
THE LARGER IMPACT
The Chamba operation exposed how high-value timber from Himalayan forests can fuel international black markets, stretching from India’s hill villages to Tibet through Nepal. Thanks to the swift, coordinated action of IFS Kritagya Kumar and his team, under the strategic guidance of CCF Abhilash Damodran, an intricate smuggling web was dismantled before it could regenerate.
As the forest department prepares further charges, the case stands as a striking example of meticulous surveillance, rapid legal manoeuvring, and courageous fieldwork that protected an irreplaceable natural resource.
