Forest mafia at it again

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 26

Well-heeled forest mafia is spreading its wings across Punjab, especially in Chandigarh’s periphery – threatening the ecologically-fragile Shivalik Hills.

Even as the Capt Amarinder Singh government is taking measures to check mining, transport and cable mafia, chopping of trees is going on unchecked under the patronage of revenue and forest officials.

Despite Forest and Wildlife Preservation Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot issuing strict guidelines, the illegal felling of ‘khair’ trees is going on in the forest areas of Siswan and Mirzapur villages, located along the road connecting Kurali with Baddi in Himachal Pradesh.

On the pretext of clearing the land that has been de-listed from the provisions of the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900, a large-scale felling has been going on for the last few days in the thick forest area abutting the Siswan check dam.

Fresh signs of felling of ‘khair’ and other trees and chopping these into pieces for smuggling were evident on Wednesday. Strangely, the field-level forest officials — the guard, forester, range officer — have seemingly been unable to enforce the rule of law.

Admitting that it was a serious matter, the Forest Minister said the forest officer concerned would have to explain the incidents. He pointed out that he had taken a serious note of a similar case from the forest area of Talwara in Hoshiarpur.

Forest Department officials said since large chunks of forest land abuts the common village land in 38 villages in the Majri block on the outskirts of Chandigarh, plundering of forest area is going unabated.