Fingers point at forest dept. in tree-felling case

Senior officials failed to flag Revenue orders’ illegality, possibility of underhanded practices was ignored

With the illegal felling of centuries-old rosewood trees in Wayanad triggering a political stir in the State, questions are being raised on the Forest Department’s ‘silence’ when the Revenue Department issued orders permitting felling of trees in ‘patta’ lands granted to cultivators. Government sources told The Hindu that senior Forest officials had failed to express reservations about these orders’ illegality. Besides, the higher-ups did not caution the field officers about the underhanded practices likely to happen in the guise of these orders. Also, the field officers had been lax in seeking clarifications on the Revenue orders that grossly infringed the Kerala Land Assignment Rules, 1964; the Kerala Land Assignment Amendment Rules, 2017, the Kerala Preservation of Trees Act, 1986 and the Kerala Promotion of Tree Growth in Non Forest Areas Act 2005. Sources said the Forest Department had issued permission for cutting trees and had also accepted the declaration by landowners even when the Revenue orders had mentioned that no permission was required.