The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Nainital divisional forest officer to file an affidavit listing the current status with respect to all incidents of illegal felling of trees in Nainital.
The green panel has also directed DFO Nainital Chandershekhar Joshi to look into the feasibility and tentative costs of geo-tagging of old trees in Nainital, particularly Deodar and Oak trees.
NGT principal bench New Delhi has directed Nainital divisional forest officer to file affidavit listing the current present status with respect to all incidents of illegal felling of trees in Nainital. The green panel has also directed DFO Nainital Chandershekhar Joshi to look into the feasibility and tentative costs of geo-tagging of old trees in Nainital, particularly Deodar and Oak trees.
NGT’s principal bench in the national Capital also directed head of forest force (HoFF) Uttarakhand to specifically mention the steps taken for setting up of grievance redressal cell in compliance with the recommendation made by the joint committee in its report.
“We are of the considered view that such grievance redressal cell must have a control room with a dedicated hotline/web portal where any member of the public should be able to make a complaint regarding illegal felling of trees and a quick response team for taking prompt action in case of receipt of any such complaint regarding illegal felling of trees to prevent illegal felling of trees and to ensure immediate seizure of illegally cut trees along with vehicles and equipment used and arrest and prosecution of the offenders”.
The NGT was acting on a petition sent by a person named Vivek Verma from Nainital last year.
The letter raised concerns about the unauthorised cutting of trees in the forest area adjacent to Nainital city during the last few years.
The petition alleged that some of the trees belonged to endangered species. The forest area is also getting damaged due to the illegal felling of trees. Since Naini Lake gets recharged by forest areas around it, there is a danger of loss of the catchment area of Naini Lake due to the destruction of the forest area by illegal cutting of trees, the petition claimed.
The matter was heard on May 3, but a copy of the order was made available on Tuesday.
In September last year, NGT had constituted a joint committee and directed it to submit factual and action-taken report in the matter and appointed advocate Akash Vashishtha as amicus curie in the matter.
Last month, amicus curie Vashishtha submitted his report before the tribunal, stating, “Numerous trees of different varieties of trees, including Oak and Cedar (Deodar), along some of the stretches, on the steep slopes, directly leading to the Naini Lake and which also constituted the immediate catchment area of the Naini Lake, were found cut... Large-scale felling of trees was seen in Ayarpatta, Nainital...”.
Against the backdrop of these developments, NGT in its May 3 order directed DFO, Nainital to file an affidavit specifically mentioning the present status/latest position in respect of all incidents of illegal felling of trees reported by the Joint Committee.
The matter has been listed for the next hearing on August 22.