More than half-a-dozen trees, mostly Vilayati Keekar (prosopis juliflora), were illegally cut in the protected Mangar Bani area here on Sunday. The area is notified under Section 4 and 5 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act.
The illegal cutting came to light in the morning when some villagers spotted men carrying branches and trunks of trees in a vehicle. “It raised suspicion and when we went inside the forest to check we found several trees cut. There were a couple of persons inside the forest who ran away on seeing us,” said Sunil, one of the villagers. The matter was reported to the Faridabad Division of the forest department and officials visited the area around noon.
An infrastructure firm that owns land in the forest was also accused of felling over 50 trees last month.
On March 30 a group of bird watchers, including a Delhi High Court lawyer and his friend, were seriously injured when they were attacked allegedly by a local priest and his goons in the area. It was seen as an attempt to keep away environmentalists and activists from the forest.
One of the last few stretches of virgin forests in the National Capital Region, the Mangar Bani has been treasured by and cared for centuries by the residents of three villages -- Mangar, Bandhwari and Baliawas.
Over the past few years, the villagers were forced to sell their share of land and a draft development plan for Mangar was passed in 2011 allowing real estate activities. But the Ministry of Environment & Forests intervened directing the Haryana Government to identify Mangar Bani and other such areas as forests and to keep the development plan in abeyance. A group of villagers even sent a petition to the Haryana Government in 2012 -seeking to protect over 320 acre of Mangar Bani and its surrounding area. But little seems to have been done by the Haryana Government.