In An alarming revelation, a whopping 7,74,237 trees have been felled illegally in the past nine years in State’s forest areas. The trees felled include 3,21,847 Teak trees. Even as tiger population in Maharashtra has increased by 25% in four years, the illegal tree felling has been on steady rise, causing the Government a massive Rs 55.16 crore loss. An RTI query by activist Abhay Kolarkar brought out the shocking figures. The Forest Department, however, is yet to collect the tree felling data for the year 2023, the RTI reply stated. According to the Indian State of Forest Report 2019, Maharashtra topped the chart of states with maximum tree cover, but the data provided by the Forest Department in the reply is concerning. The report also stated that the main offenders of illegal tree felling in forest areas are local villagers as they can use the have easy access to forest areas for their daily requirement of firewood and other purposes.

 

 

 

 

According to the report, the organised way of smuggling of Teak wood has also increased in the border areas of the state in recent time. Sironcha Forest Range in Gadchiroli division, Rajura forest sub-division of Chandrapur, Aurangabad forest division of Nanded, and Nashik forest division witnessed the highest illegal trade of Teak wood.

In last four years (2019-2022), Gadchiroli district in Vidarbha recorded the highest illegal tree felling with 56,412 trees chopped off. The forest department bear a total loss of Rs 6.26 crore during these four years. According to the data, the highest illegal tree felling in last six years were recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic (2020-21 and 2021-22) period when the government restricted movement of people in forest area. In 2020, total 86,958 trees including 36,061 Teak trees felled in the state and it was 81,086 trees in 2021.

 

However, when the situation normalised after the lockdown, the number went down by 65,650 in 2022. This is a huge loss despite spending several crores on salaries of protection force of the department. Almost all divisions are having mobile squads, along with armed constables from police department, Kolarkar told The Hitavada. “Illegal tree felling reducing the green cover of our forest and the government should put more impetus on protection of trees along with conservation of wild animals,” said the RTI activist.