CUTTACK: Alleged illegal felling of trees over an area of five acres by two private parties within Badapari Demarcated Protected Forest (DPF) under Tangi tehsil in Khurda district has come under the National Green Tribunal (NGT) scanner.
A two-member fact-finding committee has been constituted on May 15 and asked to submit report within four weeks. The committee includes the Khurda district collector and divisional forest officer.
Giri Gobardhan Forest Committee president Gopala Charan Palatasingh had alleged that the two private persons were illegally felling trees and setting fire to the forest within the protected forest area demarcated by pillars under the garb of ownership over it.
The petition claimed that the forest committee is a registered society mandated to protect forest consisting of villagers of Badapari, Bhobara, and Nuagaon under Tangi tehsil. Advocates Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy made submissions on the petitioner’s behalf in virtual mode. The NGT’s east zone bench comprising B Amit Sthalekar (Judicial Member) and Dr Arun Kumar Verma (Expert Member) said, “Considering the allegations made, we deem it appropriate to constitute a fact-finding committee to visit the site in question and thereafter submit a fact finding report on affidavit within four weeks.”
Khordha collector shall be the nodal office for all logistic purposes and filing the fact-finding report, the bench directed while posting the matter to July 28.
The bench also issued notices to the additional chief secretary state Forest & Environment department, Odisha Biodiversity Board, secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, and deputy director general of forests (integrated regional office-Bhubaneswar). “All the respondents shall file their counter affidavits within four weeks,” the order said.
According to the NGT order, the petition said the illegal felling of trees were done in parts of the protected forest area having dense vegetation and habitat of wild animals such as sambar, rabbit, khuranga, peacocks, deer, wildboar, jungle cats, pangolin, elephants and various types of snakes and birds.
“The forest in question is also a treasure of medicinal plants and the local healers use those herbs to cure different types of diseases, hence, the site is equally important from the perspective of biodiversity,” the petition claimed.