As many as 3,000 trees in a deemed-to-be forest in Malur, Kolar district, have been cut down and taken away illegally, prompting the Forest Department to register a case against PWD officials and the contractor. However, the police have refused to act.
Documents accessed by DH show that the PWD assistant executive engineer and a contractor named Chandpasha have been booked for violating provisions against felling of trees under Section 2 of Forest Conservation Act and Rule 144 of the Karnataka Forest Rules 1969 for illegally transporting trees.
The nine-acre 30-gunta land is part of the 41-acre plantation that was identified in 2016 by a committee comprising the Kolar deputy commissioner and deputy conservator of forest. Subsequently, the same land was listed as deemed forest land in the affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on January 1, 2022.
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In his report to the higher-ups, the Kolar DCF has expressed concern that despite the matter pending before the Supreme Court, the Revenue Department has granted 9 acres, 30 guntas of the deemed forest to the Principal District and Sessions Judge, Kolar.
The report accompanied by the FIR, mahazar copy and a letter from RFO, all accessed by DH, said the range foresters had filed a complaint with the Malur police. “However, the police refused to take the complaint stating that the land has been granted by the deputy commissioner to build a court complex,” the RFO stated, adding that the Forest Department needs to write to the deputy commissioner to cancel the grant.
The Supreme Court in December 1996 has ruled that the provisions in the Forest Conservation Act for protection of forests “must apply to all forests irrespective of the nature of ownership or classification”.
“The deputy commissioner’s grant order not only goes against his predecessor’s 2016 decision to classify the land as a deemed forest, but also violates the apex court’s order. The PWD engineer has also violated rules by felling and transporting trees without taking clearances. The matter has been taken up at the highest level in the government,” a senior official told DH. Even the Forest Department has to take permission from regional empowered committee of the Ministry of Environment for felling trees in plantations.