Tree protectors turn destroyers

Forest officials cut trees for department function attended by forest minister

MUMBAI: The best way to hold a function in the forest department is simply to hack trees without discrimination. If this was not enough, the minister of state for forests, Ravi Patil, at the function to announce the Sanyunkta Forest Samiti, said, “We have created a new department for environment due to the efforts of forest officials, who have been spearheading the campaign to protect trees and our environment.” His remark just went to show that neither the forest officials nor the ministers seemed to notice the hacked trees with their branches scattered around, right next to the 150 by 150 feet pandal erected for the function.

The event, held on the campus of the forest divisional office and the forest training school for guards, was attended by forest officials and ministers, including the minister for forests, Babanrao Pachpute.

The felling of the trees has also attracted the wrath of the residents of Shahapur in Thane district, who actually captured the scene on their cell phones. “The trees that were cut included Ashoka trees, and I have pictures of that on my cell phone camera,” Prakash Paranjape, former PRO to the legislative assembly speaker, told DNA. “The irony is that, at the spot where the trees were cut, officials displayed boards saying ‘Trees are god, they need to be protected’.”

When DNA contacted SB Kewate, director of the forest training school, he defended the felling. “This is a prohibited area and we have high-tension wires here. The line keeps going off when the trees grow higher, so we cut a few trees. We just chopped a few trees, not 25,” he said.

This was countered by Vinayak Dhanake, NCP president of Shahapur taluka: “This is totally false. There are no high-tension wires.”