Gurgaon: Realtor, forest staff booked felling trees in Sector 111

The forest department filed a complaint on Sunday against the developer stating that it chopped trees in an area that comes under general Section 4 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) 1990

Police filed a case against a real estate developer on Sunday allegedly for chopping more than 2,000 trees without permission from the authority concerned in Chauma village of Sector 111, 15 kilometres from the city.

Tree felling incidents are frequently reported in Gurgaon. (HT File)

The forest department filed a complaint on Sunday against the developer stating that it chopped trees in an area that comes under general Section 4 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) 1990, where tree felling is illegal without approval from the forest department.

“We submitted a report to the police regarding our findings. Further investigation should be done by them. We have also provided them with photographic and Google image evidences. We have suspended a guard and two range officers who were allegedly involved in the case,” a forest officer said.

In September 2016, the developer had approached the forest department seeking permission to axe 20 trees. However, the department had only given nod for transplantation of the trees and permission was not given to the developer to cut trees, the complaint by the forest department stated.

After the department came to know about the incident, it conducted an inquiry and suspended a guard, Parveen, and two range officers, Amardeep and Khajjan Singh, for their alleged involvement in the case.

The area is close to a project site of a real estate firm and residents alleged that it is a deliberate attempt by the builder lobby to grab more land illegally. The area is a prime location for realtors, as it is six kilometres from the Dwarka Expressway.

Rajiv Talwar , a resident of the area who filed a complaint in the forest department against the developer, said, “The trees were chopped and transported in a truck from this area.”

A case has been registered in the Palam Vihar police station. “The forest department had mentioned that 1,322 fully grown trees and 921 shrubs were chopped from an area of 12 acres without permission from the forest department. We have filed a case against an employee of the firm and three forest department employees,” Jai Singh, assistant commissioner of police, said.

Representatives of the real estate firm did not respond to calls and messages for a comment.