Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Nov 16: The concept of Tree Authority was thought of and Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act was promulgated in 1976. But the Tree Authority stated therein has not seen the light of the day so far.
As per the said act, tree authorities have to be set up at all rural and urban local bodies’ level. Various rules and regulations about protecting trees and creating awareness have been spelt out. In 2014 some changes were brought.
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Now trees are felled in the name of development and citing problems created by them. Every day, the forest department receives at least 50 applications seeking to cut down standing trees. Permission of the Tree Authority is a must if over 50 trees are to be felled. But as the authority has not been set up so far, these applications are disposed of by the forest officials now. The officials permit to cut down trees after accepting specified amounts but this amount does not go into the growing of new trees. Environmentalists say that once this authority comes up, the practice of cutting down trees without sufficient reasons will come to an end.
Chief conservator of forests happens to be the chairman of the authority as far as local bodies are concerned. Deputy director of horticulture, PWD executive engineer, commissioner of the local body and either a botanist or environmentalist will be members of the authority. In addition, three NGO representatives will be in the authority. In the rural areas, chief conservator of forests will be the president with deputy commissioner or an officer of the tank of assistant commissioner appointed by them, PWD executive engineer and two ex officio members will be there.
Deputy forest conservator, Dr V Karikalan, says that list of office bearers for the Tree Authority has been sent twice to the government and no notification from the government has been received. He said that once the government approves it, the authority will start functioning.
Shashidhar Shetty, general secretary of National Environment Conservation Union, said that request had been made to the district administration and forest department to set up Tree Authority when the proposal to cut down trees at Padil for the construction of deputy commissioner's office came up. He said that there has been no progress. He wanted such an authority to be set up not just for formality but to become a tool to conserve nature.