Peepal, neem, banyan: 47 trees chopped in factory abandoned for 20 years, 2 booked

Ghaziabad: Two employees of a factory in Modinagar were booked for allegedly chopped 47 trees that had grown over two decades on its premises.

Police said the land belonged to Modi Rubber Factory, and it hadn’t been used for 20 years. The trees – which included fully grown peepal (30), neem (7), jamun (1), banyan (2), sycamore (2), pilkhan (3) and shisham (2) – had grown naturally over time.

The complaint was filed by forest official Rohit Sharma after a social media post circulated online.

Officials from the forest department said that the factory staffers did not take permission before chopping trees.

“They chopped the trees illegally last month, and later collected the logs and set them on fire. Sections of the Uttar Pradesh Tree Protection Act have been violated by both the accused,” an official of the district forest department said.

The video of chopped trees was posted by Sachin Verma. He said the staffers were told to clean the abandoned area and hide the remaining parts. “They did it without obtaining any kind of permission from the concerned authorities,” Verma said.

The police said that estate manager Rajkumar Bahal and junior estate manager Lakhwinder Singh have been booked.

An FIR was registered against them on Sunday under IPC Section 268 (person is guilty of public nuisance who does any act or is guilty of an illegal omission which causes any common injury, danger or annoyance to the public), and Section 15 of the Environment (Protection) Act), and provisions of the UP Conservation of Trees in Rural and Hilly Areas Act.

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