Over 500 trees felled, stolen from Gram Sabha land in Greater Noida

Greater Noida: The Gautam Budh Nagar forest department, with the help of police, has launched an investigation after receiving complaints that more than 500 well grown trees were felled and smuggled from the Gram Sabha land in Uncha Ameerpur village

Greater Noida: The Gautam Budh Nagar forest department, with the help of police, has launched an investigation after receiving complaints that more than 500 well grown trees were felled and smuggled from the Gram Sabha land in Uncha Ameerpur village.

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The forest department had planted these trees in 2012 and handed over them to the Gram Sabha in 2015, officials said.

Avnish Singh, a local resident who informed the forest department about the incident recently, said that the trees had grown well in the past nine years. “Three days ago some local people visited the spot and found that a number of trees have been felled and smuggled. It appears that some smugglers stole these trees at night,” he said.

On Saturday, a team of forest department and Jarcha police conducted an inspection of the spot after getting the information. According to the forest department, a total of 534 trees of different species were illegally felled and timber stolen. “The species included arjun, neem, kanji, and babul to count a few. We have lodged a complaint at Jarcha police station. The plantation was carried out by the forest department on the Gram Sabha’s land and maintained it till 2015,” said PK Srivastava, divisional forest officer, GB Nagar.

The area of land on which the illegal felling took place is around 10 bigha, Srivastava said, adding that a playground was already proposed on the land for which permission was sought from the forest department to fell the plantation. “However, the incident happened before the forest department could act,” he said.

Shripal Singh, station house officer, Jarcha police station, said that around 10,000 trees were planted in the area nine years ago. “It appears that some wood gatherers used to roam around in the area and pick dry wood. Gradually, they started cutting branches of the trees and then felling them. We have registered a case under sections 4 and 10 of the Forest Act. We are investigating the case and will arrest the people involved in the crime,” he said.