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Forest minister's gunman caught felling trees in Devarayanadurga jungles (Oct. 07)




















SOURCE:
The New Indian Express, Bangalore - State, Page 6
October 18, 2007

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEK20071018021527&Page=K&Headline=Chennigappa%92s+gunman+caught+felling+trees&Title=Southern+News+%2D+Karnataka&Topic=0

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Chennigappa's gunman caught felling trees
Express News Service

Tumkur,Oct 17:
President's rule seems to have no impact on former forest minister C Chenigappa's chelas. They continue to fell trees and lift them illegally from the Devarayanadurga reserve forest, 12 km from here. Hanumanthappa, gunman of the former minster, was caught red handed onWednesday, while felling tres and shifting logs from the forests. Some people hired by the gunman and some Forest Department workers werespotted axing the trees and loading the logs into a tractor. His home village Bandihalli is about 10 km from the spot. When environmentalists and mediamen qustioned him, Hanumanthappa claimed that he had taken permission from Assistant Conservator ofForests Srinivas and RFO Krishnappa. According to him, section forester Rakesh conducted a 'mahajr' by visiting the spot and gave a green signal to axe an old tree. A huge tree was axed along with several young trees. DCF Paramesh could not be contacted as his mobile was switched off. Local forest officials 'co-operated' with the law-breakers in the forests made it clear that they have to follow 'instructions from the top brass'.

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Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 25, 2007 at 10:13 AM

    How sad to see this. I'm fro Madhugiri. I used to laugh at my father when he used to say Madhugiri was full of forests. Today we dont see anything. Its a dry land. My grand mother quotes so many forest tree names ive unheard of. Is there a solution to this problem?

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