NGT summons records on felling of trees along canal

Chandigarh : The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has summoned the records on the controversial felling of 24,000 fully grown eucalyptus, ‘sheesham’ and ‘keekar’ trees under a project to widen the 800-km-long Bist-Doab canal during the SAD-BJP rule.
Taking up the petition filed by Delhi resident Nishant Kumar Alag, a Double Bench of the NGT has directed the state government to provide copies of the communication between the forest and irrigation departments.
The Rs 270-crore project kicked up a row last year after foresters and environmentalists cried foul over trees being uprooted from a land strip (on both sides of the canal), classified as a protected forest. In his report to the Principal Chief Conservator Forests, then Conservator of Forests (Shivalik) Charchil Kumar had said: “Forestland attracts provisions of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. The Act makes it mandatory to seek nod for diversion of forestland for non-forestry purposes from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.” He had further written: “Citing reports of the range officers of Nawanshahr, Kathgarh and Balachaur, it’s the legal status of land (protected forest) that has to be considered while taking a decision to divert it…” The user agency (Irrigation Department in this case) had to apply for diversion to the Centre through the Forest Department. As it was a key project of then SAD-BJP government, the Forest Department’s top brass claimed that no rules had been violated as the trees were not located on forestland.