The Forest Department has sought a report from the National Highway authorities regarding the unauthorised felling of trees from the median of the road.
The report was sought regarding the cutting of eight Subabul trees and one Kanikonna and Maruthu trees of girth of around 30cm, which were located at the median of the national highway near Chalikkavattam.
This is the latest in the series of incidents that are taking place in the road stretch between Vyttila and Edapally.
The city had been rapidly losing its green cover including the trees located on the median of the national highway that runs through the city. A few weeks earlier, some trees in the stretch were axed without the permission of the authorities. In both the cases, the National Highway authorities have not responded to the queries and the culprits could not be identified, said an Assistant Conservator of Forest, Social Forestry Division.
The State Forest Minister's office had also sought a report from the Social Forestry officials regarding the latest incident.
Though the Social Forestry wing carried out attempts to identify the culprits, it didn't succeed, officials said.
The cutting of the trees comes at a time when the Forest department has embarked on a greening programme of the State by planting saplings along the sideways of the National Highway and major roads.
The department had also undertaken a campaign with the slogan, global warming, tree is the answer.
Incidentally, the Forest department had formed committees at regional levels to look into applications seeking permission for cutting trees located in public places and check incidents of illegal cutting of trees.
The committees were formed to representatives of civic bodies and NGOs were directed to inspect the cases that come before it and suggest suitable action.
Meanwhile, the National Highway authorities said that they had filed complaints with the police regarding the cutting of trees.
The complaint was filed when an instance of cutting of three trees came to the notice of the authority.
Subsequently, a reminder was also sent to the police, officials said.
