news details |
|
|
| Hundreds of trees including Khair chopped off along under construction road in village Rahya | | |  Early Times Report
Jammu, Oct 23: Hundreds of trees including banned Khair trees have been chopped off along under construction road from Rahya village to Central University of Jammu (CUJ) campus on the pretext of road clearance but actually the trees were several hundred meters away from the road.
According to sources, the construction of road from village Rahya to CUJ campus has been going on since last few months and many grown trees were cut down by the contractor, which was necessary for the construction of double lane road to the campus.
"Taking benefit of the road construction, a vast chunk of area just opposite of the holy pond, has been cleared off the green cover. The small hillock had a large number of trees including Khair, Mango and other local varieties but all have been cleared by someone", sources said, adding that it was still unclear as whether the land was owned by some individual or it was the state land.
The hillocks have been razed to ground while the Khair trees, cutting of which is banned in the state have been cut down in large number. "Even in the village itself, several Khair trees have been chopped off by some local and transported to some factory", sources said, adding that on the pretext of road construction, trees have been chopped off but it was still unknown, who was the culprit behind the destruction of the green cover under full public glare.
"Even if some individual had to cut the trees from his own land, s/he has to take permission from the Revenue department and transportation permission from the Forest department but such formalities have been trashed and trees have been chopped off", sources said, adding that the stumps of the trees have been burnt down by the perpetrators to evade any action from the authorities.
Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Samba Abhinav Rometra said that if someone wanted to cut trees from his own land, he has to take permission from the Revenue department and permission to transport the chopped trees was given by the Forest department. He further said that the Forest area was not close to the mentioned land and the Revenue officials could best respond as whether they had given the permission or not.
Tehsildar Vijaypur Pawan Khullar said that he would enquire the matter and took proper action under relevant laws. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
