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THE ASHANTI Regional Assistant Manager of Forest Service division (FSD), Mr. Isaac Noble Eshun, has bemoaned the effects of illegal mining (Galamsey). He said the nationwide crusade against illegal mining (Galamsey) is far from over, as illegal miners in the Ashanti Region have adopted new style of degrading our forests reserves. According to him, illegal miners in the region have adopted a new approach to degrade forests and other lands. Mr. Eshun said the top soil of the forest is taken away by these illegal miners with an excavator and transported to a different site to extract the gold and other minerals thus creating deep pits. He explained that the clearing of the top soil of the forest and pits pose great danger to forest supervisors because they could fall into the pit, citing Tepa and Bekwai as prime examples. He stated that this development is stifling their operation of safeguarding our forests one way or the other. Mr. Eshun said the taskforce are doing a great work, but the illegal miners are causing blistering havoc with this new extraction approach and called on the security agencies to step in and keep these illegal miners at bay. According to him, people besides illegal miners have taken advantage of the activities of illegal miners to encroach on farm lands. He indicated that traditional rulers and politicians have made the situation worse as they encourage people to encroach on forest lands belonging to the state by pleading for encroachers when arrested and arraigned before court even when the government is spending huge sums of money to refill the land being destroyed by illegal miners. Mr. Eshun bemoaned the serious destruction that illegal mining is causing our environment, water bodies and forests, and appealed to the government to put in place measures to avoid further losses.