While on the one hand, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and his team are gearing up for mega plantation of 2 crore trees on July 1, on the other hand, district, civic and police officials have turned a blind eye towards a man who went on a rampage, mercilessly axing nearly 85 orange trees in Katal taluka in Nagpur.
Sandip Parbat, who chopped down trees of his family farm over a land dispute around 20 days ago, is roaming freely as residents of Katal taluka and his own family members run from pillar to post to seek justice for the trees.
Established in 1919, Katal is the oldest municipal institution in India and one of 14 talukas in Nagpur. Located in the orange belt, the city is a major centre for orange trading and has a large output of cotton as well. Mr Parbat’s family has about 100 orange trees and also grow cotton for a living.
About 20 days ago, Mr Parbat, following a long-standing feud with his father over the family property, overnight axed 90 per cent of the orange trees in their farm. Mr Parbat’s cousin, Avinash Parbat, said that the incident left the family and village in a state of shock as they believed the trees gave them their bread and butter. “There could’ve been other ways of settling the dispute but chopping down trees to prove a point was just ridiculous. For one, the state is struggling with a severe drought and heat waves and conservationists are pointing out the necessity of trees and this person mercilessly chopped down 85 to 90 trees of the farm,” said Mr Avinash.
While Mr Parbat’s family members are trying to get some action taken against him, neither the civic body nor police officials have done anything about it. “We have met police officials several times and spoken with civic officials as well. In reality, the village isn’t that big and police officials already know about the incident; they should’ve taken suo moto action against Mr Parbat,” said Mr Avinash.
Mr Parbat’s family members are now planning to meet the Collector and seek his help in taking some action against Mr Parbat. Meanwhile, conservationists say that action is seldom taken against tree-felling unless there is widespread public outrage. “The act can attract three months in jail or Rs 2,000 fine per tree. Last year in September, NGT had fined Rs 25,000 to a Santacruz builder for every tree he axed so there are provisions for stringent action in NGT laws. But for that, the accused needs to be framed first,” said a conservationist.
