A joint committee of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday visited a 25-acre locality in Barnala to probe allegations that the Barnala Improvement Trust uprooted nearly 140 old trees to clear the area for commercial exploitation or a housing colony.
The team, comprising representatives of the Central Pollution Control Board, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, inspected trunks of the trees buried beneath the soil. The inspection comes after Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Kahneke village near Barnala, filed a petition in the tribunal alleging that the authorities axed 140 trees, aged about 50 years, while removing people from jhuggis on a 25-acre area on January 31. The trees were of neem, banyan, peepal, mulberry, teak, kikar, tahli, and jand varieties.
Taking up the petition on March 23, the NGT observed that no action had been taken by the authorities and formed a joint committee. The committee was directed to verify the allegations, find out the number of trees illegally axed, identify the persons responsible, and suggest punitive and remedial measures within four weeks. The matter was adjourned to July 3.
Gurpreet Singh said, 'We hope stern action will be taken against those responsible, who tried to conceal the facts by filling the place with soil.'
