Puranga Sub County in Pader district has intensified operations against the cutting of the shear nut butter trees.
The Puranga sub County chief, Emmanuel Oguti, said last week that they launched the operation after an outcry by the Pader district forestry department that shear nut trees are being depleted
In December last year the Puranga sub county council resolved that the cutting of shear trees should be stopped.
By last week, according to the OC Puranga police, Phillip Can Ogura 21 people had been arrested for cutting down shear nut trees.
Can Ogura said police is using ‘‘crime preventers’’ to arrest the culprits.
Acholi Times was able to some of those arrested for allegedly cutting down shear trees.
One of them, Alex Ojera Bongo said he was arrested while selling a basin of Charcoal. He however denied cutting shear trees, saying he had instead cut a tree locally known as “Opok” to burn the charcoal.
Another suspected identified only as Oryema said he was arrested after police found with a heaps of logs from shear nut trees. But he claimed he did not know where the logs came from.
Mercemino Odoch, a cultural leader in Puranga Sub County condemned those cutting down the shear trees yet it is an important source of food.
Pader district passed a by-law against cutting of shear nut trees in 2014. The by-law spells out that anyone caught cutting the tree will be fined 50,000 shillings to be paid to the Sub plus a goat for a rituals to be performed by cultural leaders.
Cultural leader, Odoch says the ritual is meant to cleanse the offender and appease the gods so that they can send rain for the growth of new trees to replace the cut one.
Shear nut trees grow widely and naturally in Uganda. In Pader district, they are most common in Puranga Sub County in the parishes of Aringa, Lamin-ajiko, Lamin-cwida, Oret, Lakoga and Apwor.
Oguti, the Puranga sub county chief says the cutting of trees is rampant in the sub count because of the high demand for charcoal.
He said because of the operations against tree cutting, charcoal dealers have now code named it ‘‘super’’ so they are not detected by law enforcement agencies.
