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Kerala forms SIT to probe tree felling, smuggling
The SIT comprises officials from the forest department and the vigilance, revenue and crime branch, an order issued by chief secretary V P Joy said.
The Kerala government on Saturday constituted a special investigation team (SIT) under additional director general of police S Sreejith to investigate the alleged illegal cutting and smuggling of hundreds of precious rosewood and teakwood trees from Wayanad and other districts, according to an official order.
The SIT comprises officials from the forest department and the vigilance, revenue and crime branch, an order issued by chief secretary V P Joy said.
“It (the tree cutting) is suspected to be an outcome of a conspiracy by some people,” he said. The special investigation team was constituted considering the “seriousness, impact and dimensions of the offences”, the top official added.
The rampant felling of trees is the first major political controversy faced by the recently re-elected Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF and the opposition plans to move the high court seeking an investigation by a central agency. The smugglers were found to be misusing a government order from last year that allowed the cutting of trees on revenue land allotted to farmers before 1964. After the Muttil (Wayanad) incident, where 101 rosewood trees were found to have been illegally felled and smuggled, similar instances have come to light in many other districts.
In Thrissur, officials say they foiled an attempt late on Friday to burn stumps of felled teakwood trees so as to destroy evidence.
Green activists said trees worth at least ₹500 crore were plundered using the government order and they suspect a nexus between politicians, officials and the timber mafia . Chief Minister Vijayan on Saturday said it was a serious issue and that his government would not spare the guilty. The government admitted in the high court last week that a big tree-cutting mafia was involved and that the recovery of wood worth ₹50 crore was the tip of the iceberg.
In October 2020, the state revenue department issued an order allowing the felling of protected trees such as rosewood and teak grown by farmers on land alloted to them before 1964. It is believed that the modus operandi for what could well be one of India’s largest environment crimes involved members of the timber mafia misusing this order to fell trees in forests, on private land, or on land belonging to poor uneducated farmers who might not have been aware of what was being done.
The activists have also claimed that principal secretary (revenue) A Jayathilak should not have issued the controversial order.
Indeed, soon after the order was issued, Wayanad district collector Adeela Abdullah warned her superiors of potential misuse but nobody took it seriously. Meanwhile, Divisional Forest Officer (Flying Squad) P Dhanesh Kumar, who played a key role in unearthing the alleged smuggling, was reinstated in the probe team after public outrage over his removal. After the case came to light, he was transferred although forest minister A K Saseendran claimed on Friday that he was not aware of the abrupt transfer of the officer. Kumar has survived two attempts on his life, allegedly by the timber mafia.
Kumar was instrumental in reclaiming over 7,500 acres of forest land. The Wildlife Protection Society of India honoured him in 2006 for tiger protection and he received the chief minister’s award in 2007 for busting an inter-state sandalwood gang. Two plants in the Western Ghats have been named after him, Rotala Dhaneshiana and Syzygium Dhaneshia. “I can’t talk about the case. But I will be on the forefront to save forest and wildlife,” he said.
