Green signal, wanton tree felling

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 16

Egged on by local leaders, farmers in Patiala and Ropar districts have started taking possession of their land acquired for the  Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal. 

The leaders also provided equipment to the farmers to enable them to level the land.

Also read: SYL canal levelling goes full throttle

Thousands of trees along the 25-km embankment in the Bassi Pathana block of Fatehgarh Sahib were uprooted by 150 JCB machines deployed to fill the land. There were no irrigation officials at the site. 

Joyed at the unexpected bounty, local residents were only too pleased to carry away the wood on their tractor-trailers. “The government says the land belongs to those from whom it was acquired, therefore we are not stealing the wood,” said an unrepentant Harjit Singh.

In Thuha village near Rajpura, residents were seen killing snakes, rabbits and partridges. 

When contacted, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Kuldeep Kumar said, “It is a serious issue. We will write to the Police Department to register cases against those who entered the restricted forest area.”

A disappointed Baljinder Singh of Chunni village said had the water flown in the canal, he could have irrigated his fields. He said that excited over the government’s decision to return their land, the farmers had hired JCB machines to fill up the canal and arranged langar for Akali workers and JCB drivers.