100-year-old deodars in Palampur axed without seeking permission from authorised committee

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, May 24

Century-old deodar trees on the premises of the local Municipal Corporation (MC) have been axed.

Information gathered by The Tribune reveals that a few deodar trees on the MC complex were uprooted in a storm last week. While removing the uprooted trees, the MC authorities also felled six 100-year-old deodar trees without the permission of the Tree Committee headed by Urban Development Minister Suresh Bhardwaj.

As per a state government notification, no tree in the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation can be removed or axed without the prior permission of the Tree Committee.

Divisional Forest Officer, Palampur, Nitin Patil says that he has written to Municipal Commissioner Vikram Mahajan to send him the details of the total number of trees damaged or uprooted in the recent storm. The report was still awaited.

Mahajan says that he was on leave for 10 days and joined office yesterday. When the matter came to his notice, he sought a report from subordinate officers. “It was conveyed to me that the trees damaged in the recent storm were a threat to the MC building. Therefore, these were removed. The MC followed proper procedure to fell the trees,” he adds.

In the past few years, various departments did not take forest laws seriously and a number of deodar trees in Palampur were either cut or lopped off without valid permission from the authorities concerned. In many areas of Palampur town, trees were cut to free land for the construction of government buildings.

Deodar trees, which were once the beauty of the town, are disappearing day after day. In the past 10 years, a large number of deodar trees had been axed or dried up. In front of the local PWD rest house and the Rotary Bhavan, over 12 trees had been dried up.

#Environment #global warming #tree felling