Greens seek govt. intervention to stop felling of trees on estate

Lobby aiding axing of huge trees on 300 acres in Brahmagiri Hills, says activist

Environmental organisations in Wayanad district have sought the government’s intervention to foil attempts by a private coffee estate management, with the alleged support of a few Forest and Revenue officials, to axe huge trees on the estate spread over 300 acres on the Brahmagiri Hills on the Kerala–Karnataka border.

N. Badusha, president, Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshna Samiti, said that though the Forest department had stopped issuing permits to cut trees on the land of farmers after the massive rosewood tree felling came to light at Muttil in the district recently, tree felling was still going on in a private coffee estate on the slopes of the Brahmagiri Hills, a highly ecologically fragile area, with the support of a group of Forest and Revenue officials.

Nearly 100 acres of the estate is revenue land and a vast area of land adjacent to the estate bungalow is forest land. The felling of silver oak trees had been underway on the forest land too since area was yet to be demarcated, Mr. Badusha said.