With public pressure mounting against felling of fruit-bearing trees, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday directed the concerned officers to immediately file a review petition in the High Court against its earlier order to remove encroachment from forest land.

“The government is fully apprised of the situation and a review petition would be filed in next two three days to stop felling of trees to evict the encroachers,” he said.

Dubbing the action of Forest Department as “irrational and unfair”, Mr. Singh said the High Court never ordered axing of apple-laden trees and the maximum the department could do was take the orchards into its possession.

Claiming that there were disputes in the land titles in many cases as no demarcations had been done, Singh said axing of apple trees would have serious repurcussions and the green cover would shrink.

The encroachers should first be asked to surrender the encroached land and felling of trees should be last resort, he said, adding, he has already issued orders for filing a review petition in the High Court to contest the order, get it stayed or suggest alternate steps to save standing tress.............Read more

Source web page: The Hindu