The Wayanad district administration has asked the police to register cases against those who felled centuries-old rosewood trees in the private land of 12 tribal families in the Muttil South village.
C. Muhammed Rafique, Deputy Collector (Land Assignment), said the Deputy Superintendent of Police (special mobile squad) had been asked to take steps under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as the perpetrators had procured the trees at low prices by misleading the tribespeople. The police had recently registered cases against 68 persons from whose plots the trees were felled as per a complaint of the district administration.
According to the Forest Department, the lobby had felled 202 cubic metres of huge rosewood trees in 42 sites in the Muttil South village at low prices by misinterpreting a government order.
Probe sought
The Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti, an environmental organisation, urged an investigation by a government agency into the large-scale felling of valuable trees in Wayanad.
Its office-bearers said two contradictory orders of the Revenue Secretary regarding the felling of rosewood trees had paved the way for their massive plunder in the State. Only a probe by a government agency would reveal the conspiracy behind it, they said.
