Employees of the Forest Corporation cutting down a huge tree in Chakrata Road
Believe it or not, but more you scrutinize the workings of the District Forest Office in Dehradun, the cloudier things become and whether this opacity is inadvertent arising from years of lack of public scrutiny or wilfully created to hide “the ugly face” is difficult to diagnose at first glance.
The latest shocker comes in the form of the reply to an innocuous RTI query submitted to the DFO by the author of this article. The reply shocked the daylights out of those who read it and left everyone asking … “Whodunit?”.
In 2006 when the drive to widen Dehradun’s roads was at its peak, things became ugly for the trees of Chakrata Road. According to the local shopkeepers, who are willing to testify on oath, in March of that year, 11 green trees were earmarked for chopping for road widening. Two of them were massive trees in front of Capri Trade Center. Two attempts to cut them were scuttled by these shopkeepers, who protested strongly. One of them recounts how the massive tree in front of Capri provided shade to passer-by’s in the scorching summer sun. In a remarkable show of “sincerity” towards duty, workers, probably of the Forest Department, descended at 5.00am on 18th March 2006 and chopped down the trees. How one wishes that government servants of other departments were as conscientious of their duties! Leave alone reporting at 5.00am for work, they barely reach their offices at 10. This was the way the story of these 11 life giving green trees at Cannought Place ended.
This brings us back to the RTI question. The question was “Number of trees for which permission was given for felling between 2002 and 2009, on Chakrata Road from the Prabhat Cinema to beginning of Bindal Bridge.” And the answer was ZERO from 2004 to 2009 and 2 in the year 2002/3. This literally made everyone jump out of their seats. If after 2003 no permission was given to cut trees at Cannought Place, then “Whodunit?”
Images from Google Earth of March 2005 shows these trees clearly, photographs and witnesses confirm that someone cut these trees in March 2006 and as all of us can see, there are no trees now in Cannought Place. The moot question which needs to be probed is if the DFO never gave permission for tree felling in Cannought Place in the period in question, then how can anyone cut trees in broad daylight. Identities of the persons who cut the trees can easily be established from the photographs and the truth then reached. But the question is, is there anyone in the officialdom, who is interested in knowing the truth? Is “Satyamev Jayata” an old saying only?
