The permit granted by the Punjab forest
department for felling of 27,000 different species of trees in the
forested area near Perch village is being misused to chop down
undersized trees, which is strictly illegal.
Not those that are undersized, trees standing on
slopes have also been marked for felling by the contractor who seems
to have brushed the stringent rules on tree felling in the
ecologically fragile Shivalik Hills under the carpet. And this is
happening right under the nose of senior forest officials sitting only
a few miles away in Chandigarh.
Conservator of Forests, Shivalik Hills, Parveen
Kumar said since the Ropar DFO had given the permit he would enquire
about the matter from him.
Falling under the Kharar range, the forest has
been opened for tree felling after six years. According to the forest
department rules no tree having a girth less than 60 cm can be chopped
down. When The Tribune team visited the area on January 17, ‘khair’
and other species of trees having a girth less than 61 cm were found
to be marked for felling or had already been chopped down.
Some of the trees with a girth of just 43 to 54
cm have been singled out for felling in gross violation of the rules,
which also state any tree standing on an erosion prone slope cannot be
felled. The marking of trees to be chopped down is supposed to be done
in the presence of forest officials.
At certain spots the basic rule to mark trees
for felling to avoid opening of a canopy in the forest appears to have
been given the go-by. The Tribune team found different groups of
woodcutters from Nepal, who were camping in temporary huts in the
area, were busy cutting down the trees.
Moreover, to allow movement of tractor trolleys
to ferry the wooden logs, a JCB is apparently being used to cut
through the forest cover along the embankment of the low-gravity Perch
dam to widen the passage till a seasonal rivulet.
Throughout the day the tractor trolleys move
along the path on their way to the yard, where the logs are being
stored.
In certain pockets that are inaccessible by
tractor trolleys camels have also been engaged to ferry the chopped
wood.
