Changes made in govt circular led to felling of trees on assigned land

Union Min Prakash Javadekar seeks report on illegal axing of rosewood trees in Kerala

Kozhikode: The ongoing probe into the felling of protected trees from revenue land assigned to farmers and tribals revealed that changes in state government circulars led to the logging.

The first circular of the forest department that paved the way for timber loot was issued last March by overturning decisive recommendations.

The final circular was issued by excluding two important sections contained in the draft to prevent the illegal felling of protected trees. This particular information is contained in the 198-page file obtained by Manorama from the revenue department.

Meanwhile, mystery shrouds the disappearance of notings and observations made by officers while opposing tree felling.

As reported earlier several protected trees, mostly rosewood and teak, were found axed from assigned land in a few districts of Kerala.

The forest department's assessment is that 2,410 teak and blackwood trees had been cut from the patta land. Forest officials had earlier pointed out that the exact number of trees would be thrice more than this figure.

Trees were also cut from forest land.

Draft circular

As per the draft circular of March 2020, the holders of land deeds (patta) will not be granted permission by the forest department to cut trees like teak, sandalwood and blackwood whose ownership is vested with the government.

The ownership of teak, blackwood, ebony and sandalwood trees which existed at the time of assigning the land and other reserve trees are vested with the government. However, the ownership of teak, blackwood, ebony and sandalwood trees that grew naturally or were planted after the land was assigned would vest with the owners.

Also the ownership of all trees, barring sandalwood which are retained in the land, would be vested with the holder of the title deed.

Seven months later a separate order was issued giving clarification on this circular which also warned of action against officers who blocked the felling of trees.

In the meantime, the high court had stayed the validity of the circular.

The controversial circular was issued by the revenue department in response to a petition submitted by the then Muvattupuzha MLA Antony John.

In the petition the MLA sought permission for cutting trees in assigned land and steps to contain wild animal attacks in agricultural land. The decision was taken in a joint meeting of revenue minister and forest minister held on February 5, 2020.

SIT still awaits tree register

The failure to hand over the tree register and files to the Special Investigation Team headed by IG S Sreejith has been attributed to workload of the revenue officials. The SIT had directed the Land Revenue Commissioner to hand over tree register to assess as to how many trees had been cut from the revenue patta land.

Though the direction was forwarded to all village officers, the register has not been received from any office yet. Inspection was carried out in nine districts under the forest vigilance wing.

Investigators are unlikely to arrive at an estimate on the number of trees felled illegally in forests. No documents exist regarding this. Many stubs of the cut trees too won't be remaining as officials poured sugar and burnt them to remove all evidence.

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