Areas around the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary are witnessing large-scale tree felling as landowners believe that they won’t be able to sell trees after the classification of ecologically fragile areas around the sanctuary. Even small trees on large acres around the sanctuary have been cut believing the false propaganda over Ecologically Fragile Land (EFL) notification.
Greens say this will lead to unexpected environmental issues in the area, which has witnessed several episodes of landslips and soil piping phenomena.
Many wholesale wood traders, including from neighbouring districts, are taking advantage of the situation by procuring trees at low prices. Flouting environmental norms, many new village roads have also been carved out for transporting trees.
Leaders of Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti say Kattippara and Karincholamala villages are now witnessing speedy felling of trees as there are no measures in place to create awareness among farmers.
“Forest Department officials are hardly noticing the issue in the environmentally sensitive area where many people had been killed in landslips,” they add.
They point out that the uncontrolled cutting of trees will further increase the chances of soil erosion in the fragile area and trigger natural disasters.
There should be proper intervention on the part of the disaster management authorities and the Forest Department to prevent the unhealthy trade and create awareness among landowners, they say.
Earlier, large-scale purchase of land in environmentally sensitive areas for quarry business also had led to the clearing of trees.
Chengottumala was one such location where acres were cleared of trees for preparing ground for the business. Though a local action council made all possible efforts to prevent it, quarry operators managed to get the clearance for their business.