Kundapur: Mudur Tree-felling Incident - 50 Locals Surrender
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (VM)
Kundapur, Jul 17: As many as 50 villagers who were involved in felling of trees to vent their ire against the district administration in Mudur ten days ago, surrendered before the police on Monday July 16.
The villagers surrendered before the Kollur police and were later handed over to Kundapur court which released them on condictional bail.
On Saturday July 7, the locals, in a fit of rage and frustration over the apathy of the authorities in repairing Jadkal-Mudur road, had cut down more than 150 trees causing a loss of nearly Rs 50 lac.
Angered by this, DC Dr M T Reju had visited the spot and ordered that the trees would not be cleared until the culprits surrender.
It is learnt that a sum of of Rs 2 crore was sanctioned for the construction of the 8-km Jadkal-Mudur road. The trees on either sides of the road were barriers for road widening, and the forest officials had hindered the work for this reason. It is said that the locals with the intention of having wide roads for their village chopped down the trees as they were not aware of the consequences.
Following their action, the residents reeled under power cuts and problems in communication and access to the outside world. The DC had demanded surrender of 400 people, which had angered the residents further. However, seeing no end to the crisis 50 of them surrendered before the police.
K Laxminarayan, MLA, Gopal Poojary, Prasad, Jadkal gram panchayat president, gram panchayat members, taluk panchayat members, zilla panchayat members held discussion with the forest officials and the police. Thus they were able to succeed in solving problem through compromise.