Officials of the forest department fined a resident of DLF Phase-3 for cutting trees without their permission on Wednesday.
Alka Noopar, a resident of U block in DLF Phase- 3, had cut the Pilkhan trees next to her garden.
An environment-based NGO “Haryali” received a call from Noopar’s neighbours that the tree was being axed.
The NGO reported the matter to the city police, which immediately swung into action.
Claiming that she was unaware that cutting trees without permission was a violation, Noopar said, “I am staying alone. Nearby drivers consume liquor under the tree at night. Also, ants from the tree crawl into my house. I have to clean my garden everyday.”
Noopar said these factors forced her to cut the tree.
Giving his take on the issue, Vivek Kamboj, director of Haryali, said, “Noopar wanted to get rid of these Pilkhan trees. She said the tree’s branches were too big and fell over the boundary wall of her house. She wanted to cut and replace these trees with Alstonia.”
“Tomorrow somebody else will start complaining about Alstonia. We recently got one such case in Noida where a couple of residents wanted to cut down Alstonia citing health hazards. People cannot cut trees as per their preference”.
{{/usCountry}}“Tomorrow somebody else will start complaining about Alstonia. We recently got one such case in Noida where a couple of residents wanted to cut down Alstonia citing health hazards. People cannot cut trees as per their preference”.
{{/usCountry}}Devender Rao, range officer (forest), said, “We have issued a challan as per the violation”.