New fiat makes it easy to chop trees

The Telangana state government just made it easier to chop trees in panchayats and rural areas to take up development works.

The government on Wednesday amended the Telangana State Water, Land and Tree Act (WALTA) for the purpose. Under the new rules, applications for felling a tree should be disposed of within 12 working days. If officials fail to dispose of the applications, applicants can go ahead and cut down the trees as the permissions will be deemed granted.

In March this year, the government had relaxed norms to fell trees to set up industries wherein applications had to be cleared within seven days.

The Telangana government has made it easier to chop trees in panchayats and rural areas for development works. If officials failed to clear them within the deadline, the applicants could axe the trees as permission would be deemed granted.

This norm, which was brought about to give faster approvals for setting up industries as part of the Centre’s Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), had triggered widespread protests from environmentalists. However, not only has the government ignored their demands, it has now come out with fresh amendments to extend the same to panchayats and rural areas.

This is because a major chunk of the land bank earmarked for industries is located in the neighbouring districts of Hyderabad, which fall under the jurisdiction of panchayats. The government brought these new norms to check delays in approvals.

In case of applications for trees that are categorised as “high risk”, the respective divisional forest officer should decide the matter within 12 working days.