Even as different organisations and government departments are coming forward to celebrate the World Environment Day by planting trees on June 5, no attention is being given to give life to two mandatory bodies that can do a lot to preserve the environment.
Biodiversity management committees (BMCs) and tree committees in most civic bodies across the State are currently inactive and impotent. Although they do not have direct powers to take action against anyone for harming the environment, they can do a lot to help conserve the environment by bringing the culprits to book. “I am sad to say that BMCs in all panchayats and municipalities in Palakkad district are thoroughly inactive,” said Babu Bonaventure, district coordinator of the Biodiversity Board.
When BMCs are supposed to monitor the biodiversity in the respective panchayats and municipalities, the tree committees under Social Forestry Department headed by respective civic body chiefs have to accord sanction if a tree in a public place has to be cut down. But the tree committees have seldom made an intervention whenever trees were felled in the name of development in recent years.
“We have a lot of people, including committees and departments, to plant trees. But there’s none to resist and take action when people cut down trees in public place. The failure of tree committees and BMCs is egregious and blatant,” said Boban Mattumantha, environmental activist.
Although dozens of trees were cut down in recent years in Palakkad by different people, including government departments, hardly any case was registered. Police too take a soft stand that they would register a case only if the complaint is made by the department or person who has the ownership of the tree.
“That’s the biggest problem we face. In several cases, police refused to take case. We saw how police evaded responsibility even when we made a hue and cry over the felling of a tree at Palakkad Junction Railway Station,” said Mr. Boban.
According to him, reviving the tree committees and BMCs will go a long way to ensure conservation of trees. Civic body chiefs who head the committees are displaying little interest largely because of their affiliations to political parties. “We raised over a dozen complaints against various cases of tree felling in recent years, but only one case was registered,” Mr. Boban said.
