The joint operation started by Sindh Police against dacoits in the Katcha areas of river Indus is going on for the last many weeks. In the local news, it was reported on August 1 that while being chased by a police posse in Keti Mumtaz, some dacoits took refuge in the deep forest. The police instead of cordoning off the area or employing some other means such as tear-gassing the sanctuary to bring them out of their hideout, reportedly set the forest on fire. The fire spread. One constable died and 24 were laid unconsciousness due to asphyxia caused by the conflagration. One more riverine forest also got destructed. The riverine forests of Sindh through the centuries have remained hiding places of outlaws. During the Zia era, a new factor, unheard of in this part of the world, also emerged i.e. kidnapping for ransom. Because of its high return, kidnapping for ransom soon became an 'industry' and forests on both sides of river Indus were infested with robbers who made lives of the contiguous towns miserable. The local feudals, finding the state authority waning in the Katcha area, started encroaching upon government forests and converted them into Keties with relentless logging. Torching of forests to flush out dacoits, the crudest but most convenient of methods, was employed in this period to 'cleanse' the Katcha area. As a result of this mindless idiocy the hapless province of Sindh, once home to 87 Katcha forests on both sides of river Indus, has lost almost 90%of its green cover by now. -ISHA M. KURESHI, Karachi, via e-mail, August 4.