District admn orders probe into Sunderbans tree felling

The reports have already opened a hornet’s nest with the CPM and SUCI accusing each other of felling the trees. At the centre of the controversy is local SUCI MLA Joykrishna Haldar,who according to the CPM leaders is behind the largescale felling of trees such as garan,hetal,keora and bani.

Haldar,however,rubbishes the claim. According to him,the District Standing Committee on Forest and Environment — a body that includes officials from forest and environment department of the state government — on March 3 this year decided to set up a Mangrove Research Centre in Kultali.

“There were about 8 hectares of land in the island,which has been created by the change of course of Nayipukuria river. The proposed research centre was to be built there and it is a state government-approved project. I don’t understand why fingers are being pointed at me,” said Haldar.

SUCI MP Tarun Mondal,who has come in defence of Haldar,termed the allegations as “utter lies”.

“No mangrove trees have been cut. Only weeds have been cleared. None of the plants that have been cut occupy an area of more than 2 inches. The allegation is baseless,as two lakh trees require 1,000 hectares to grow,and that at no point of time there were so many trees in those eight hectares,” he said.

The SUCI leadership accuses the CPM-led panchayat of cutting a huge number of trees in the past one month. The SUCI leaders said that in the name of building roads,the local panchayat,which is led by the CPM,has felled a large number of trees in the northern stretch of Kultali.

“Roads are not important in that part of Kultali. Just to lure voters,the CPM workers have cut trees to build roads,” said Halder.

Panchayat chief Madan Adhikari did not deny cutting trees but added that only those many trees were cut which were necessary to build the roads.

Meanwhile,the district magistrate visited the area. He was accompanied by several officials,including Kultali BDO Subhash Shikari and Baruipur SDO Arshad Ayub.

“I will also speak to the District Forest Officer and officials of Sunderban Tiger Reserve on this matter,” Ahmed added.