More than 20 days after the mass tree felling incident in Serilingampally zone, the only man punished beyond any measure for the crime is the one who brought vehicles to cart the logs away.
Ketavath Srinu, a resident of Pahadi Shariff, paid dearly for his unintended participation in the illegal act.
Besides paying rent for the hired vehicles for as long as they were kept in custody of the Forest department, he also incurred a challan from the department for payment of ₹70,000 for release of the vehicles.
“I regularly work with GHMC for clearing fallen trees and tree branches from the roadside. I am not even paid by them, but earn revenue by selling the waste as firewood,” Mr. Srinu told The Hindu.
The call received from the GHMC supervisor on April 30 for similar work was presumed by him as routine. Little did he know that the 78 trees on the Hitech-City-KPHB route, all Peltophorum species, were illegally felled by orders from the very officials who were supposed to protect them.
“There were a large number of officials from GHMC and Traffic Police supervising the work. No sooner had I begun picking up the logs, than the Forest officials arrived, and in a jiffy, confiscated the two vehicles I had brought on hire. There were other GHMC vehicles too on the spot, but they did not seize them,” alleged Mr. Srinu.
The subsequent 20 days were a nightmare for him and his family. Owners of the two vehicles began to exert tremendous pressure on him. “They attacked my home one night asking me to either pay the price of the vehicles or ₹2,000 per day as waiting charges. I rushed to my village the next day, and borrowed ₹50,000 to pay them,” Mr. Srinu shared.
Calls to the GHMC officials, who summoned him, went unanswered, and appeals to the Traffic Police yielded him only threats, he says.
Mr. Srinu, along with his brother, made several rounds of the Forest range office in Chilukur and the headquarters in Aranya Bhavan, to secure release of the vehicles.
“Finally, the forest officials generated a challan for ₹70,000 and asked us to pay it in order to get the vehicles back. We have no alternative, as my brother has become suicidal after going through this ordeal,” Mr. Srinu’s brother Ketavath Paramesh, an engineering student, lamented.
The incident of tree felling came to light when Vinay Vangala, a citizen activist, shared it on social media tagging the Forest officials on April 30. The tweet went viral, with several citizens demanding action against the culprits.
Enquiry by foresters revealed that the trees were felled on orders from the GHMC’s Urban Biodiversity officials, on deputation from the Forest department. It is not yet clear at whose behest the job was carried out, and for which an inquiry needs to be conducted by GHMC. Officials from GHMC said they had not received the report from the Forest department so far.
