Gurugram: More than 1,000 trees have been cut down in the past week in the village of Kot Aravalis, activists have shown to the Ministry of Forestry.
About 20 hectares in the area, which is only 4 km from the protected Mangar Bani Grove, has been released violating the Punjab land conservation law.
Section 4 laws prohibit all types of logging trees throughout the region.
Activists said that during a visit to the area a few days ago, they had found many Stump Desi and Vylayati Kikar and Cadim.
“It seems that the tree cuts are no longer a violation in Aravalis.
If this takes place, the entire area will be cleared by a tree,” said Suni Harsana, an environmental lover who visited the area after receiving complaints from tree logging.
In other parts of the village of Kot, which is close to the city of Faridabad, the Supreme Court has ordered the destruction of 10,000 houses than environmental problems.
This area, where the trees are cut down, closer to Mantar Bani, where the government Haryana has announced a buffer zone of 500 meters.
Harsana explained that the forest area was being cleaned so that the land was considered for “chakbandandi”, which was a small plot collection process and then allocated it to villagers who had documents to show that they had ancestral land.
“If there is a tree on a certain ground, it cannot be allocated by the government under part 4 PLPA.
So, the villagers are cleaning areas so that no trees and chakbandi can be done,” he added.
According to Environmental Analyst Chetan Aggarwal, this area is called “Shamlat”, a public village land that does not belong to any individual.
“The government must be careful not to infline land ‘shamlat’ for privatization.
It must have trees and forests so that even if cleaned, such land is not allocated later,” he added.
Activists, who have worked for years to save Aravali’s green cover, said the forestry department must identify the earliest offenders.
After being allocated, many of the villagers are known to sell land to interested parties from cities.
It often raises illegal farming houses in forested areas.
“Big tree cuts and hill leveling are the opportunity for illegal farming homes to appear in the area,” said Jitender Bhadana, a resident of Faridabad.
The Forestry Department said they had increased patrols in the area.
Raj Kumar, District Forest Officer in Faridabad, said, “Yes, we got information on Saturdays about logging in the area.
We took strict action on violators.
I have increased the number of personnel patrols in the area.”