KOLKATA: Logs of trees uprooted in cyclone Amphan a year ago still lie in the open, exposed to elements and rotting.
Timber merchants said auctioning the logs in time could have earned the state coffers several crores of rupees.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had a few days ago enquired about what had happened to the thousands of trees uprooted by cyclone Amphan.
According to a KMC parks department official, 15,000 trees in the city were destroyed that night.
The civic body had cut the uprooted trees and the logs were stacked in parks and grounds.
The task of auctioning was handed to West Bengal Forest Development Corporation and the sale was to be finished by 2020.
But the process is yet to take off.
The logs now lay scattered, with rot setting in, said a civic official.
But, a forest official said, the auction might have been derailed by the pandemic.
Trees uprooted in Salt Lake and New Town are also lying in Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and New Town Kolkata Development Authority warehouses.
NKDA officials said for the 4,647 felled trees, they had replanted 3,738.
“We have kept all the uprooted trees in our stackyard near Tank 11 in Salt Lake.
Not a single tree has been misplaced.
We have been working onthe auction process,” said a BMC civic official.
Officials said a tender was invited for the auction.
With over a year now, most uprooted trees could now be used for fuel, officials said.
Around 4,500 trees had fallen in the BMC area during Amphan, of which 2,500-3,000 fell in Salt Lake and its adjacent localities.
KMDA also replanted several trees in Rabindra and Subhas Sarobars.
Several trees of medium height at the Lake were found retrievable.