Tree protection Act needs to be amended: Khandre
Minister for Forest and Environment, Eshwar B. Khandre, on Friday favoured the need to amend The Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976 in order to take strict action and impose higher fines on those who illegally cut down trees on government land, forests, and roadsides.
Speaking at a Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) Monthly Management Review (MMR) meeting on Thursday, Mr. Khandre said that even the Supreme Court had objected to the cutting down of large numbers of trees. 'In view of global warming and climate change, it is the responsibility of all to protect trees,' he said.
The Minister pointed out that recently there had been instances of public outrage over the approval given to cut down hundreds of trees in the name of development. 'In this regard, permission should not be granted for unnecessary tree cutting,' he said.
On encroachment of forestland, he said that there should be zero tolerance and anyone who had encroached forest land after 2015 must be evicted without leniency.
He also instructed officials to provide information about encroachments, evictions, and actions taken in the last two years.
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