Kundapur: Frustrated Locals Destroy Over 150 Trees, DC Furious

Aishwarya Beejadi
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur

Kundapur, Jul 11: Udupi DC Dr M T Reju on Tuesday July 10 took Jadkal gram panchayat to task over the recent felling of trees by angry locals who were miffed with the authorities for not taking action on repairing Shelkod-Mudur road.

The locals, in a fit of rage and frustration, or pehaps instigated by someone else, had on Saturday July 7 night cut down more than 150 trees using mechanized saws, cauding a loss of nearly Rs 50 lac. They were angry over the apathy of the authorities despite their constant demands to repair the roads and undertake development works in the area.

On Tuesday, the DC visited Jadkal-Mudur to examine the spot. After inspecting the trees that were cut down on both the sides of the road from Jadkal Hulipare to Mudur ground, the DC reprimanded the Jadkal gram panchayath president who was present at the spot.

"No one is above law. As per the guidelines of the Wildlife and Forest Protection Act, it is wrong to cut down trees to show your anger against bad roads. The responsibility is to be borne by the gram panchayat. This issue had to be brought to the notice of the district administration, through a memorandum, after discussing it in a meeting with the gram panchayat. It is not possible to clear the trees immediately. The trees won’t be cleared until the culprits surrender. There are other roads in our district that are worse than this. But nowhere has such an unlawful incident taken place. The culprits have to surrender immediately," he thundered.

Reju walked from Jadkal Hulipare to Mudur ground and collected all the details of the number of trees, electric poles and telephone cables that were damaged. Udupi police SP Dr Borelingaiah, Kundapur assistant commissioner B Sadashiva Prabhu, Kundapur forest range officers Sadanand, Ganesh, Byndoor circle inspector Arun B Nayak, Kollur inspector Dejappa, Byndoor tahsildar  Raju Mogaveera and  Mescom officials among others were present.

The locals are tensed as they have no contact with the outside world as the road is completely closed due to blockage by the cut down trees. Tension has raised in them after the visit by DC , as he did not direct the officials to clear the trees off. locals are spending time in darkness as there is no power supply from 3 days. School and college students and patients have been affected very badly.

The order by the DC to bend before the law and that 400 people have to be surrendered has angered that locals. "If you have to arrest, arrest all the 6,000 people, not just 400. You do not feel the pain that we are suffering right now. We have not done any crime. This was to get your notice," said angered locals addressing the DC.

“We know how to cut trees, in the same way, we know to clear them off. If the district administration cannot do it, let them give it in writing, we will carry on with the further works," challenged the locals.

The locals have warned the administration to take necessary steps within four days, failing which they threatened to take law into their hands. Even though Rs 2 crore has been sanctioned for road development, the forest department has put the work on hold. This hinderance in road development is the main reason for the issue to crop up.