Forest officers to be held responsible for theft of ‘khair’: Dharamsot

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 26

Punjab Forest and Wildlife Preservation Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot has taken a serious view of the theft of ‘khair’ wood from the forest area of Talwara in Hoshiarpur.

The minister has sought a report from the range officer in a week.

The minister said the responsibility to ensure effective mechanism for putting a stop to the theft of wood and illegal felling is on the forest officers concerned who would be answerable for any such incident.

Exhorting the forest officers to discharge their duties dedicatedly, the minister made it clear that nobody is authorised to fell trees without procuring a No Objection Certificate (NOC) and this unlawful practice should be severely dealt with.

Dharamsot said the state government had chalked out a programme to plant saplings on a large scale so as to make environment clean and green. He said that under various schemes the people were also being made aware to plant saplings near their houses to ensure perfect ecological balance.

He said that sometimes owing to widening of roads it became imperative to cut trees but the state government is working on a war footing to increase forest cover through planting of saplings by going in for land acquisition at various places.

He said another comprehensive strategy had been formulated as per which the farmers of the state would be supplied with 10 lakh to 25 lakh saplings free of cost to assist them in going in for planting eucalyptus, poplar and ‘dek’ instead of the usual crop cycle.

He said illegal encroachments on the forest department land would not be tolerated and in case anybody’s complicity is proved, it would lead to strict action.