Gram panchayat member booked for felling trees in Udupi

UDUPI: A gram panchayat member, who should have been a role model for others in protecting the environment, cut over 25 trees last week. The forest department officials have now booked him under provisions of the Tree Preservation Act.

The Hebri Gram Panchayat member, Vadiraj Shetty, who is a PWD contractor and also owns a stone crusher, felled the trees and stored them in his areca nut farm. Forest department officials, who got a tipoff, seized the timber on Thursday.

Forest department officials said that during questioning, Vadiraj told them he was developing his areca nut plantation, and as the trees came in the way, he felled them without taking permits from the forest department.

Forest and revenue department officials will conduct a joint survey to know if these trees were in patta or kumki land. In the latter case, the timber will be shifted to the forest department depot. If the trees were from patta land, the forest department may allow Shetty to own them after he pays a fine.

Hebri RFO Anil Kumar said Shetty had planned to introduce drip irrigation in his farm. He felled some coconut and areca nut trees initially. Later, he also felled some trees that have timber value, like jackfruit, wild jackfruit, bhogi and dhoopa (vateria indica). A non-cognisable offence case has been filed against Shetty.