NGT hearing on khejri trees felling case today

Jaisalmer: The principal bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) will hear on Friday a petition regarding indiscriminate felling of Khejri trees and other desert species to set up solar power projects in Oran Gochar area and other areas in Jaisalmer district.
The hearing has been scheduled following a plea by Narendra Singh Rajpurohit against the state government for the latter’s non-compliance of NGT orders.
On the other hand, villagers continued their dharna against problems created due to the solar power project being set up at Nimba village in Fatehgarh subdivision of Jaisalmer continued on Thursday.
Villagers alleged that the company is felling a large number of Khejri trees and local people are not given employment.
On May 10 last year, NGT constituted a joint committee in this connection and a bench of Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi, Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert member Dr. Afroz Ahmed was asked to submit a report in two months. But when the joint committee did not submit the report on time, the NGT bench expressed concern in its hearing on November 3. Later, a petition for urgent hearing was accepted by the bench.
Former sarpanch Kamal Singh, who is leading the dharna, said officers of the company are not ready for talks with farmers. Environment expert Parth Jagani said the energy companies are neglecting international environment and social laws.