CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued notice to state government on the petition seeking intervention against large-scale felling of trees on government land for the construction of an Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT) at Palabani in Baripada. Pramod Kumar Hembram, a resident of Baripada filed the petition challenging felling of trees in five acres of a patch of 10 acres of urban forest area and green zone. Advocates Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy made submissions on behalf of the petitioner.
The NGT’s East Zone bench in Kolkata issued the notices seeking replies from the respondents on December 23 and posted the matter for next hearing to January 6. The bench comprising judicial member Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert member Ishwar Singh issued the notices to additional chief secretary Forest and Environment department, district collector Mayurbhanj, member secretary Odisha Biodiversity Board, DFO Baripada and managing director Odisha State Road Transport Corporation.
The petition said the official report of the DFO Baripada permits the felling of only 1,789 trees, but more than 5,000 trees have allegedly been cut down illegally. The authorities classified the land as Patita Kissam (barren or fallow land) to justify the large-scale removal of trees, despite the land hosting dense forest growth, the petition alleged.
The petition said no effort was made to identify alternative barren land in the locality or nearby areas. Since the ISBT project is not site-specific and remains at the proposal stage, relocating the project could save thousands of trees from further felling, it was argued.
The petition further highlighted that the site at Palabani was declared an urban forest and green jogging zone on October 2, 2016. Developed by the Baripada forest division, the 10-acre urban forest reportedly houses around 12,000 trees, including sal, mahogany, acacia, and neem. Plantation activities began in 2013, supplementing existing mature trees and the area was opened to joggers in 2016 after the trees had grown to nearly 15 feet.
The trees felled reportedly also included several valuable and fruit-bearing species such as karanja, neem, sishu, bahugani, baula, lemon, Mango, Sirisa, and other forest species. This, the petition stated, is in direct violation of the conditions of permission granted for tree felling, which explicitly required that forest growth be kept intact and undisturbed. The Baripada DFO has been accused of remaining a mute spectator to the indiscriminate destruction.