Illegal axing of trees: Irrigation Dept to submit reply today

The Forest Department recently issued a notice to the Irrigation Department against illegal axing of 20 trees and mining along the Sirhind Canal near Doraha, the reply to which is supposed to be submitted by the latter by January 18, failing which legal action will be initiated.

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The Forest Department sprung into action after the Public Action Committee (PAC) filed a complaint with the Regional Officer, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and District Forest Officer of Ludhiana, recently against the Executive Engineer, SDOs and junior engineer concerned of the Water Resources Department, Punjab, as well as private contractors responsible for illegal axing of trees and mining within the forest area along the Sirhind canal near Doraha.

Members of the PAC engineer Kapil Arora, Dr Amandeep Bains, Jaskirat Singh, Kuldeep Khaira, Preet Dhanoa and Swaranjit Kaur, Sahil Sharma, Navneet Bhullar, Gurpreet Singh Palaha, members Guramneet Singh Mangat from the Progressive Farmers Front, Samita Kaur Mangat from ‘We Support Our Farmers’, Shahanu Jain and Col Jasjit Singh, along with members of the BKU (Sidhupur), have raised concern against the authorities whose indifferent attitude led to the axing of trees, illegal mining and caused environment degradation. They also alleged burning of wood in the forest and installation of a batching plant in the area.

“Two underground water tanks had also been constructed by excavating the forest area,” they said.

Founder of ‘We Support Our Farmers’ Samita Kaur said they paid five visits to the banks of the Sirhind Canal in Doraha and found that illegal mining had been conducted, to the ignorance of the authorities. “The majority of the trees have been axed while roots of others have been damaged to the extent that they too can fall any time. Such an inhumane act is intolerable,” she said.

“The earth has been excavated between trees at many locations and parts of seven trees were lying at the location. Some of the trees were axed and thrown on the kaccha road. To make things worse, illegal mining has been conducted in such a way that maximum soil is extracted from inner parts of the forest strip situated under the canal. As the officials confirmed that no such permission was granted, we requested them to register an FIR against culprits within five days of the complaint. The city being an industrial hub, trees play an important role in reducing air pollution. We urgently need to protect trees to save our future generations,” Samita said.

‘Our team recovered a dead snake from the area, which belongs to the endangered species of the reptile,” said Sahil Sharma, one of the activists and wildlife expert.

“We have to pay a heavy price for the ecological imbalance being created by thoughtless acts of the officials concerned, who should be brought to book,” he said.

District Forest Range Officer, Ludhiana, Rajesh Gulati, said a notice regarding the illegally axing of 20 trees along the Sirhind canal has been sent to the private contractor concerned, SDO and XEN of the Irrigation Department.

“The reply from the other side is expected latest by January 18, failing which legal action will be initiated,” he added.