Dar/Shinyanga. Every evening in Tinde, Samuye, Ishina Bulaindi and neighbouring villages in Shinyanga Region, long convoys of bicycles and motorcycles loaded with sacks of charcoal move along narrow bush paths cutting through farms and woodland.
Transporters avoid main roads where Tanzania Forest Services (TFS) checkpoints are stationed, instead using informal village tracks locally known as “njia za panya” (rat paths), which have become an alternative transport network.
Residents describe the flow as organised, predictable and largely uninterrupted despite patrols.
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