Illegal felling of trees on Wildlife Dept land goes unabated

The unabated felling of trees going on illegally by an unidentified forest mafia in the wildlife sanctuary land at Kharota Pattan near Pong Wetland in Kangra’s Jawali has worried environmentalists and locals. The khair tree felling season is in full swing nowadays and the mafia is active in axing and stealing the forest property of the Wildlife Department in the area between the Jawali and Fatehpur Assembly constituencies.

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However, the local wildlife authorities have lodged police complaints. In the recent case of felling on the night of May 23, the police had rushed to the spot, where the illegal activity was underway. However, upon seeing the officials, the culprits fled the spot in their jeeps. The teams chased and made unsuccessful attempts to nab them. Before fleeing, they left the axed khair trees, logs and electric wood cutters, and other tools on the spot. As per information, the mafia had axed 10 khair trees on May 23 and previously, 15 trees on May 15. In these two tree felling incidents, the accused involved in the crime are yet to be identified and nabbed.

The Jawali police have seized an electric wood cutter, sickles and other tools being used by the accused in axing khair trees and converting them into logs and started investigation. Seventy-nine wood logs of the axed khair trees have been taken into possession by the local wildlife authorities.

In this connection, Kuldeep Kumar, Range Officer, Wildlife Range, Nagrota Surian, told ‘The Tribune’ that two separate FIRs of illicit tree felling and theft had been registered. He said the accused had succeeded in fleeing on May 23 after axing khair trees in the Kharota Pattan area of wildlife sanctuary of Pong Wetland through a hidden escape route.

He said the area had multiple exit routes, which facilitated the culprits to flee and evade police arrest.

Significantly, khair wood is used in extracting ‘katha’ (botanically named senegalia catechu) having medicinal properties and is sold in the market at higher price. The ‘katha’ is used in preparation of Ayurvedic medicines. Owing to the high cost of khair wood in the market, some people with criminal nature used to axe khair trees in forest or wildlife sanctuary area in lower Kangra region and sell them to entrepreneurs running furnaces in extracting ‘katha’ from khair wood.