Imphal, September 03 2017: Division Bench High Court of Manipur has passed an interim order for total ban on cutting down of trees from reserved forest areas as well as excavation of hills for any purpose without permission from the High Court of Manipur.
This was stated by Mutum Inaobi, who had filed a PIL before the High Court of Manipur as petitioner regarding the illegal excavation of hills (reserved area) during a press conference at Manipur Press Club today .
He stated that before filing the PIL, a press conference was held regarding the mass illegal excavation of land from Heingang and Kairang reserved forest area and the Minister of Forest and Environment, Th Shyamkumar had assured to take up necessary actions but due to lack of initiative from the authority concerned regarding the issue for the last three months, the PIL was filed .
The PIL was filed before the High Court of Manipur on August 28 against the Additional Chief Secretary/ Principal Secretary/ Commissioner/ Secretary (Forest and Environment) Government of Manipur, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Manipur, Secretary, Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change, Government of India and Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, North East Zone, Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change, Government of India, as respondents .
He further stated that on August 30, a Division Bench High Court of Manipur, comprising of Acting Chief Justice N Kotishwar and Justice Kh Nobin, passed an interim order regarding the PIL which put an absolute ban on cutting of trees from reserved forest area as well as excavation of hills for any purpose without the permission of the Court .
The order also mentioned that any authority which desire to grant permission for excavation or felling of trees must approach the Court before doing so.
Source: The Sangai Express
