A long list of tree species, the produce of which does not need transit permit to be moved from one place to the other, seems to aid clandestine transport of timber rather than help preservation of forest greenery as intended.
As per the Andhra Pradesh Forest Produce Transit Rules, 1970, a total of 13 tree species have been totally exempted from transit permits in all the districts of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, while six more are exempted in all but one or two districts. It means that transport of the timber from these trees does not require any permit from the Forest Department, even while a certificate from the Revenue officials under the WALTA Act is mandatory for felling the trees.
Purpose of exemption is to encourage private land owners to grow these trees in their plots, so as to reduce the pressure on the forest timber, an official from the Forest Department said. However, the purpose seems to have been defeated going by the tonnes of firewood reaching the city every night to be burnt in factories. Besides, there is no parity between exempted species under WALTA Act and those under AP Forest Act.
Felling of only three kinds — casuarina, subabul and eucalyptus — is exempted from obtaining any sort of certificate under WALTA Act. On the contrary, those exempted in all districts under the Forest Act include orange and related species, Palmyra (Tadi), casuarina, guava, sapota, ‘Seema Thumma’ or Prosopis juliflora, coconut, cashew, eucalyptus, subabul, ‘seema chinta’ or Pithecolobium dulce, ‘ber’ or Zizyphus jujuba, and rain tree. These apart, the ‘jamun’ is exempted in all districts except Nalgonda, the Ficus species and neem in all districts except Nalgonda and Anantapur, ‘Nalla Tumma’ or Acacia nilotica in all districts except Anantapur, mango everywhere in the two States except the scheduled areas and Nalgonda district, and ‘panasa’ or jack fruit in all districts with exception of scheduled areas.
In a recent under-cover operation carried by the voluntary organisation Council for Wildlife Conservation at Chaderghat where truckloads of firewood are brought and sold, the transporters admitted that the trees had been felled from jungles, and lacked any sort of permit whatsoever. However, the Forest Department officials issued a statement refuting the claims and said the logs came from private lands, and that most of them had certificates under WALTA.
Khalid Rasool Khan, president of the NGO, questions the statement, and says WALTA permits cannot be issued for truckloads, but for each single tree. However, the Divisional Forest Officer, Hyderabad, B. Srinivas, said a single permit can be issued for a plot, and thus, each truck may have two to three permits under WALTA, indicating that the trees were felled from those many plots. Twelve trucks with firewood were seized from all the 10 routes to the city in a recent operation, on the intervening night of May 26 and 27, he informed.
