15 trees felled in D’sala temple

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, November 3

About 15 trees have been felled from the Aghanjan Mahadev temple complex here. Sources said the trees were cut on November 1 night.

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Dharamsala, Parveen Kumar said the matter came to his notice last evening. The trees were felled from the common land of the temple.

“We have registered a case under Section 379 of the IPC against unidentified persons for felling the trees as the High Court has imposed a ban on it in Dharamsala,” he said.

However, it was strange that the authorities had failed to identify the culprits despite the fact that people roamed there most of the time.

Sources said recently the demarcation of the area was done by the revenue authorities and it was found that the land where the trees had been grown was forest land. If the trees were felled from the forest land, the department should register a case against the accused.

However, forest officials are denying that the land belonged to forest.

The High Court had imposed a ban on felling of green trees in Dharamsala MC taking suo motu notice of a complaint filed by Gazalla Abdullah, a resident of McLeodganj.

After the court orders, inquiries had been initiated by the Kangra DC and SP Kangra. It was found that many deodar trees were felled in McLeodganj and its surrounding areas.

The trees were felled taking benefit of lacunae in the law. As per the provisions in the law, the land owners could seek permission from the DC if these were threatening life or property. In the garb of the lacunae, land owners felled green trees after taking permission from the DC.

The High Court had cancelled all permissions given by the Kangra DC and also stayed the power of DCs to give permission for felling of trees. Cases were also registered against accused.