BHOPAL: Rampant felling of teak trees is being carried out by wood mafia in and around Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary (RWS), which happens to be close to the assembly constituency - Budhni - of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, activist Ajay Dubey alleged.
"Teak trees are being slaughtered at the drop of a hat in an around RWS spread over Raisen and Sehore districts close to Bhopal. The sanctuary also spread over Sehore that happens to the home district of Chouhan," an NGO - Transparency International India board member Dubey told reporters here.
To buttress his claim, secretary of NGO - Prayatna working for tiger conservation, Dubey flashed some photographs showing trees being felled and transported.
He said that teak wood smugglers and mafia were slaughtering a huge number of trees and making crores of rupees unchecked.
The famous activist said that the central government had given its nod to turn RWS into a tiger reserve, in 2008.
But on its part, he said the state government was sitting tight over the issue due to reason best known to it.