Tree felling in Aravallis a major concern: Activists

GURUGRAM: Environmentalists have reported a fresh spate of large-scale tree felling on protected forest land in the Mangar and Kot villages in the Aravalli region, just across the district border, in Faridabad.

Over the last two weeks, activists said they surveyed the area and noted several land patches that were recently cleared and levelled, including in areas notified under the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900 (PLPA) and within the buffer zone of the Mangar Bani sacred grove.

This has elicited concern among environmentalists and locals from adjacent villages, who, on December 10, wrote to the state forest department, highlighting the issue, with coordinates of 15 locations where unauthorised tree felling was observed.

“After receiving several complaints from villagers of Mangar and Kot village, we visited forest area of both the villages and have recorded large scale cutting of trees... in almost all the forest/ hill areas of the Mangar village,” states the letter written by a citybased activist, Vaishali Rana Chandra.

A divisional forest officer, requesting anonymity, said that the matter would be addressed. “Vigilance in the affected areas will be stepped up,” the official said.

“This is essentially the first step in a pattern of encroachment that we have been witnessing for years. Trees are felled, then the land is cleared into a plot and eventually, taken over for construction,” said Chandra, citing examples of Faridabad’s Anangpur and Gurugram’s Raisina areas, where several unauthorised structures have come up on forested, Aravalli land.

Activists have attributed the violations to a lack of monitoring by the forest department, which, over the past two years, has reduced the number of check posts in the Aravallis.

In an RTI response from earlier this year, it was revealed that the department has only six outposts i n Gurugram, as opposed to a sanctioned strength of 11, which were operational in January 2018.

It is unclear how many such outposts are operational in Faridabad. “In the absence of forest guards patrolling the area, such instances do go up. We have seen it in the past. There is a definite need for more vigilance,” said Sunil Harsana, an activist from Mangar village.

“At least seven check posts were suddenly shut down, and we immediately saw an increase in the cases of tree cutting as a result,” he said.

Senior forest department offic i al s i n Faridabad di d not respond to requests for comment on Sunday.