A doctor and some activists were assaulted by ‘armed hooligans’ on Tuesday evening for protesting against trees being illegally chopped at a garden in Santipur in West Bengal’s Nadia district.
A group of environmental activists was campaigning for the past two months when a promoter started chopping trees at a garden, violating the Calcutta High Court order.
“According to the High Court order, no trees in Santipur can be felled without the permission of the Divisional Forest Officer. A promoter group has chopped more than 300 trees since March as it wants to build a residential complex in the garden. The garden is almost wiped clean of trees now,” environmental activist Sanjiv Kashtha told The Hindu .
The garden, spread over 30 bighas, was once owned by Chintaharan Goswami. The land was sold off to a private builder by his children after his death 15 years back, Mr. Kashtha said.
“We have filed a complaint at the Santipur police station and have included Section 302 [attempt to murder] in our complaint. The doctor’s chamber was vandalised and the damage runs into lakhs of rupees. The police are hand in gloves with the promoter and are mostly disinterested in our plight. Our lives are under threat now,” Mr. Kashtha said.
Acknowledging that a problem had been brewing over the felling of trees, Officer in Charge of Santipur police station Partha Pratim Rai said the police had spontaneously filed a complaint regarding the illegal felling of trees.
