NGT directs environment ministry to file report on illegal felling of trees in Corbett

The NGT has instructed the Centre to file an 'action-taken' report on the alleged illegal cutting down of 6,000 trees in the Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttrakhand's Kalagarh Tiger Reserve Division.

The Principal Bench of the National Green Tribunal, headed by its Chairperson Justice A K Goel, said that according to the report of an earlier constituted panel, the cutting of trees was illegal, and the process of restoration required constructions made without the approval of the Centre to be removed. But the state government's principal secretary submitted that the construction does not require the Union government's approval.

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It was difficult to accept the stand of the principal secretary, the bench said while asking the Union Ministry of Environment & Forests to file the 'action-taken' report on the matter before the next date.

The matter has been posted for further proceedings on July 19.

The green panel was hearing a matter in which it had initiated suo motu (on its own) proceedings based on a media report on the illegal felling of trees. The Forest Survey of India was asked to assess the status of illegally felled trees, the report had claimed.