Companies booked for cutting down trees

Companies booked for cutting down trees
BY AMIT S. UPADHYE
BENGALURU







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: Two companies at ITPL, near Kadugodi, are facing flak for cutting down 158 fully grown trees in a disputed reserve forest area. Forest sleuths booked cases under the Karnataka Forest Act, 1963 against eight officers, including Narpath Singh Chowraria, the director of Concord India Ltd, Embassy Group, and security officers from the Force One Security Services in KK Halli. The security officers have been charged with not keeping records of vehicles that carried the trees after they were cut down.

A senior officer of the urban forest division told this newspaper that several politicians, ministers and bureaucrats own real estate in and around the Kadugodi Reserve Forest which has been embroiled in a dispute for several decades.

“Concord purchased 78 acres of the disputed land in 2007 for Rs 39,26,47,727 from the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB). However the KIADB is itself at fault for acquiring government land. We have booked a case against KIADB and an investigation is underway. We also booked a case of encroachment against Concord India Ltd in January this year and the case is pending in court. Despite this the company has reduced 158 trees to stumps and tried to burn them,” the officer said.