More cases of illegal tree cutting emerge in Kerala

After reports of rampant tree felling in Kerala’s ecologically fragile Wayanad came to light, many similar incidents surfaced in Idukki and a few other districts on Friday, forest officials said

After reports of rampant tree felling in Kerala’s ecologically fragile Wayanad came to light, many similar incidents surfaced in Idukki and a few other districts on Friday, forest officials said. They added that accused in most cases misused a government order that allowed felling of protected rosewood and teak trees on revenue land allotted to farmers.

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At least 54 cases, including 42 in Wayanad alone, have registered so far, with more such incidents being reported from Idukki, Thrissur, Kasaragod and Kannur districts. Some of the accused have moved the Karnataka high court for anticipatory bail, an official aware of the developments said. One of the accused, Roji Augustine, on Thursday told a news channel that he paid ₹25 lakh to influence forest officials.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday said the government will take up the issue seriously adding that a high-level probe team has been constituted. “It is a serious issue, and we will not spare anyone found guilty. A multi-level team comprising crime branch, vigilance and forest officials has been constituted to probe the incident,” he said.

Five cases of tree felling in protected areas were registered in Idukki and three each in Thrissur and Kannur districts on Friday, forest officials said. Meanwhile, divisional forest officer P Dhanesh Kumar, who unearthed the large-scale tree felling incidents in Wayanad, has been transferred to another forest division.

When asked about the transfer, Karnataka forest minister A K Saseendran said he was not aware of this. However, senior officials at the forest department said it was a routine transfer.

As the issue snowballed into a major controversy, former revenue minister E Chandrasekhar said the order to fell trees in the land allotted to farmers before 1964 was withdrawn after reports of its misuse. “It was a long-pending demand from farmers who were allotted revenue land before 1964. The government did it with good intention, but it was misused by some vested interests, and it (the order) was withdrawn when misuse came to light,” he said.

Opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have alleged that revenue and forest ministers of the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government were aware of the large-scale felling of trees from protected areas.

The issue came to light two weeks ago when a truckload of rosewood used for making high-quality furniture was seized from Ernakulam. The state forest department found the trees were axed by violatingthe October 2020 order that restricted the felling of trees grown on land assigned under the Kerala Land Assignment Act.

One of the officials cited above said that smugglers used the order to also cut trees on private and forest land. Trees worth ₹50 crore have been seized so far from different parts of the state, the official added.

However, conservationists in Kerala said it was just tip of the iceberg. “We suspect trees worth ₹500 crore were smuggled. Officials and leaders are acting as if they were quite unaware of this. But we suspect it was done with the connivance of all,” said N Badusha, a conservationist from Wayanad.

Meanwhile, Union minister of state for External Affairs V Muraleedharan, who hails from Kerala, on Friday visited Muttil in Wayanad, one of the tree-felling sites. He said timber mafia used the order in connivance with officials and politicians to loot forest wealth. “Those who condemned authorities in Brazil for fire in Amazon forests a few months ago were conspiring here to cut large tracts of forest land that will cause irreparable damage to the environment,” the Union minister said, adding that the state government was hand in glove with timber mafia. He also questioned the silence of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, a member of parliament from Wayanad, over the incident. Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday sought a report into the incident.

Leader of opposition in Kerala legislative assembly VD Satheesan said he will visit Wayanad on Saturday.