Notice to official over tree felling

Our Correspondent

Una, February 28

The Forest Department on Thursday initiated action against a Deputy Range Forest Officer and a forest guard for negligence in duty which led to illegal felling of about 48 trees from the forest areas of Malangar panchayat in Kutlehar.

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Yashu Deep Singh said forest guard Thakur Das had been suspended, while a show-cause notice had been issued to Deputy Range Forest Officer Ajit Kumar.

The DFO said mature khair trees belonging to farmers who were willing to those were marked by the department for cutting. The responsibility of cutting, logging, stacking and record keeping was done by forest contractors under the supervision of the forest staff, he said.

According to local residents, two forest contractors were involved in a spate of complaints and counter complaints over cutting of trees from adjoining forest land. Consequently on February 18, the Forest Department started an inquiry under Una Assistant Conservator of Forests Rahul Sharma.

The DFO said on inspection, 26 stumps of illegally cut khair trees from undemarcated protected forest (UPF) area of Malangar Brahmana village were seen and the wood was recovered from contractor Rajiner Kumar’s depot. Besides, he said 127 logs were found in excess at the depot as compared to the trees marked for felling.

The DFO said acting on another complaint, the depot belonging to contractor Chaman Lal was also checked and 959 logs of khair wood were seized. Besides, he said 22 stumps of khair trees were also seen in the nearby forest areas. He said a demarcation of the land would confirm if the 22 unmarked trees were cut from government land.