MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered status quo against the alleged unauthorised felling of trees in patta land parcels adjacent to Kavalkutti Parambai reserve forest in Tenkasi.
A bench of justices Anita Sumanth and C Kumarappan further directed the principal chief conservator of forests and the Tenkasi collector to conduct an inspection and file a status report before the next hearing on September 16.
The directions were issued on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by K Kala, a member of ward 17 of Maranthai panchayat in Tenkasi. According to Kala, the above land parcels, measuring around 350 acres, have dense, deep-rooted trees, over eight lakh in number, including palm trees and a variety of medicinal plants, besides being home to diverse fauna. However, a private company purchased the land parcels and have been cutting down the trees for installing solar panels, she alleged.
Nearly two lakh trees has been destroyed so far without obtaining permission from the district green or vigilance committee, she claimed, adding that the process is creating air and noise pollution, among others, thereby affecting the ecosystem of the area. If the trees are completely destroyed, wild animals from the reserve forest would enter the villages in search of food and water, resulting in human-animal conflicts, Kala feared.
She requested the court to stop the felling of trees and declare the land parcels as part of the Kavalkutti Parambai reserve forest.