Nagpur: A nine-member committee of territorial and wildlife officials has been set up to look into violations of tree felling inside Umred-Karhandla-Paoni wildlife sanctuary and other sets of issues.
The committee includes Pench divisional forest officer (DFO) and deputy conservator of forests, Nagpur, and ACFs, RFOs, and forest surveyors.
P Kalyan Kumar, CCF for Nagpur circle, said, “The committee will look into boundary demarcation. It will fix boundary on the ground and ensure permanent pillars are fixed so that wildlife and territorial boundaries are clearly demarcated.”
As reported by TOI, while granting permission to fell 280 trees for Nagpur-Nagbhid railway up-gradation project in the territorial area, over 50 trees were also felled in wildlife sanctuary compartment number 1439 under the garb of undefined boundaries.
On action for illicit felling, Kumar said, “As of now, there is no action against any staff. Omissions and commissions will be fixed only after the committee submits a report in seven days.”
The area where tree felling was done is a scientifically proved wildlife corridor by Wildlife Institute of India (WII). Yet, tree felling permission for the linear project was granted by South Umred RFO Vaishnavi Jhare without taking the consent of wildlife officials.
Earlier in February, Jhare had granted permission to fell over 350 trees in tiger corridor between Titur and Shivni for the same project without following requisite procedure of transit pass (TP) and hammering.