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Kerala govt orders SIT probe into axing of protected trees
Green activists said trees worth more than ₹500 crore were plundered using a weird government order and they suspect a nexus between politicians, officials and the timber mafia behind this. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said it was a serious issue and the government will not spare anyone found guilty.
The Kerala government on Saturday constituted a special investigation team (SIT) under Additional Director General of Police S Sreejith to investigate the alleged smuggling of centuries old rosewood and teakwood from Wayanad and other districts after misusing a government order that allowed cutting of trees on revenue land allotted to farmers before 1964. The SIT will have officials from forest, vigilance, revenue departments and the crime branch, the government said.
The rampant felling of trees invited enough embarrassment for the government and the opposition has been planning to move the high court for a central agency probe. After the Muttil (Wayanad) incident came to light in which 101 rosewood trees, some of them as old as 500 years, were smuggled out many other districts also reported similar cases. In Thrissur, officials have foiled an attempt to burn stumps of cut teakwood trees to destroy evidence on Friday night.
Green activists said trees worth more than ₹500 crore were plundered using a weird government order and they suspect a nexus between politicians, officials and the timber mafia behind this. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said it was a serious issue and the government will not spare anyone found guilty. The government had admitted in the high court last week that a big mafia ring was involved and recovered trees were the tip of the iceberg. Wood from trees worth ₹50 crore have been seized so far.
In October 2020, the state revenue department had issued an order allowing felling of protected trees like rosewood and teak grown by farmers in the assigned land. Under the guise of this order, wood worth crores of rupees were smuggled out from private and forest land. Poor farmers were given paltry amounts after they were showed the government order by timber mafia. Conservationists said without the consent of the political leadership principal secretary (revenue) A Jayathilak should not have issued such a controversial order. Sniffing trouble, Wayanad district collect Dr Adeela Abdullah had alerted her superiors last October but nobody took notice.
On the other hand, 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 a huge outrage. After the case was discovered, he was shifted to an insignificant post and forest minister A K Saseendran admitted on Friday that he was not aware of the abrupt transfer of the officer. A daring official, he survived two attempts on his life. He was the first to seize a truckload of rosewood in February but there were many attempts to silence him. The bigger picture of the alleged plunder came to light two weeks ago after a truckload of wood was seized from Ernakulam.
Kumar was instrumental in reclaiming over 7,500 acres of forest land. The Wildlife Protection Society of India had honoured him in 2006 for tiger protection and later 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,” is all he had to say.
