OOTY: The Nilgiris Ecology and Animals Protection Samithi (NEAPS) here called for setting up a high level panel to look into the recent incidents of illegal tree felling in the Pandalur-Gudalur belt on the Nilgiris border.
Mr. B.K. Kumaran, president of NEAPS said that the recent incident of illegal tree felling in the Bitherkad area on the controversial section-17 lands, for which ownership is vested with government, and an attempt made by some to smuggle the felled trees into nearby Kerala proved that foresters were lax on the border.
“It is learnt that though the illegal tree felling was carried out on land close to the forest range office in Bitherkad, foresters turned a blind eye. Even officials on duty at the two check-posts located on the Nilgiris-Kerala border failed to check the timber mafia who smuggled the trees into the Sultan Bathery area in Kerala,” he noted.
As some Green activists in the area brought this to the fore, revenue officials crossed the border, seized the logs from a private saw mill in Kerala and brought them back to Nilgiris, he added. The issue was brought to the State Forest minister Dindigul Sreenivasan when he visited MTR on Saturday.
