Forest officer slapped with legal notice over ‘illegal’ nod to fell 5,113 trees

The Bengaluru Urban deputy conservator of forests has been served a legal notice and threatened with a contempt of court petition for letting 5,113 trees to be axed by the KRDCL.

The tree-axing has been allowed for a road-widening project on the outskirts of Bengaluru and includes an area falling under the proposed Hesaraghatta Conservation Reserve.

In the legal notice, the advocate representing NGO Jhatkaa.org and other petitioners who have moved the High Court of Karnataka against the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL) accused the DCF of “deliberate concealment” of a court order.

As the tree officer for the district, the DCF had issued an order on October 5, 2021, allowing the KRDCL to cut down 5,113 trees for the widening of six different stretches of the road around the city.

The proposed Hesaraghatta Conservation Reserve in northern Bengaluru.

The DCF cited a part of the high court order in a petition filed by Dattatraya Devare and said the KRDCL has been permitted to “proceed ahead” with the project.

The legal notice, however, pointed to the remainder of the same order which stated that the contract for tree translocation should be served to Devare. But speaking to DH, Devare said that he did not receive a copy of the contract. “Even the official memorandum (tree felling order) was not given to me, which is a clear violation of the high court orders,” he said. “I had written to the DCF requesting that the felling be stopped, and the petitioners be given 15 days for filing objections.

The legal notice said the DCF’s “hasty and unlawful” felling order also allowed the destruction of trees on part of the proposed ‘Greater Hesaraghatta Conservation Reserve’. It cited a 2015 judgment by the high court as well as a May 2021 order which ruled that the area earmarked for declaration of the conservation reserve cannot be altered.

“In the contempt of the high court order and in abject failure to apply your mind, you have deemed fit to issue the tree-felling order... which causes irreparable damage to the environment, altering the ecology of the area,” it said. The DCF could not be reached for comment.

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