The Changlang district administration in Arunachal Pradesh has made it mandatory for trucks transporting logs to have GPS fitted in them and ply only during daytime to check the illegal felling of timber, which is on the rise in the frontier state.

According to the India State of Forest Report 2021, Arunachal Pradesh has lost about 257sqkm of its forest cover. The 2021 assessment put the forest cover at 66,430.67sqkm against 66,687.78sqkm in 2019.

Changlang DC Devansh Yadav told The Telegraph that the fitting of GPS, which helps track the movement of vehicles, started last week with the cooperation of truck owners.

Global positioning system or GPS enables a person know the exact position of a vehicle or an individual and its use is rising in the Northeast.

The move was triggered by public complaints about more timber being felled than the permitted quantity and beyond permitted areas. There are areas like reserve forests or water bodies where felling is not allowed.

Miao and Jairampur in the district have been hit by illegal felling of trees.

“While looking for a solution, we found there was no database of vehicles being used for transporting logs to saw mills and furniture manufacturing units in the district,” Yadav said.

“Work on preparing the database started in October. Then we decided to get the trucks fitted with GPS to monitor end-to-end movement to ensure there was diversion from allotted route in the district. Truck owners have supported the initiative,” he added.

Around 50 trucks have been fitted with GPS till date.

There are 100 timber-carrying trucks in the district and each GPS installation by a Delhi-based company is costing about Rs 3,000, a forest department official said. The official said GPS installation would also help the truck owners keep tab on the movement and timing of their vehicles.

Besides making GPS mandatory for trucks carrying timber to the 15 saw mills and 38 furniture-making units, the Changlang district administration has barred them from plying at night.

“There will be only daytime movement to ensure effective daily monitoring by the forest department,” he said.

In 2019, the Assam excise department had made it mandatory for all Arunachal–based liquor and beer manufacturing companies and units using Assam’s roads for transportation of their products to install GPS in their vehicles to check diversion of liquor to Assam where the cost of liquor is higher than in the frontier state.

In 2020, Gauhati High Court had directed the Assam transport department to install GPS in all buses within six weeks to ease traffic congestion in Guwahati.