Report on Periya tree felling blames officials

By C. Gouridasan Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MAY 30. The Revenue Secretary, Mr. Jiji Thomson, who inquired into the Periya tree felling incident, suggested stern measures against Revenue officials in Wayanad district on the basis of his finding that it was a "carefully planned operation with the active or passive support of the officialdom" and one which reflected the pathetic state of the district administration.

In his interim report, containing a scathing criticism of the district administration, the Revenue Secretary stated that there is not even an iota of doubt about the connivance of the officials with the forest mafia in the incident. "Most of the officials were aware of the machinations of the mafia, but were clever enough to cover it in the files. In the month of July, 1999 itself, the Tahsildar, Mananthavady, had alerted the DFO about possible illicit cutting of trees. If the imminent tree felling was to take place in patta land, there was no need for him to alert the DFO. That shows that he was aware about the illegality of the crime to be committed," Mr. Thomson pointed out.

The Government has already replaced the District Collector, placed six revenue officials under suspension and transferred four others in connection with the felling of trees, officially estimated to cost Rs. 1.20 crores, which came to light following a request submitted to the Revenue Minister, Mr. K. E. Ismail, by one Mr. C. P. Ali seeking permission to remove the logs.

In his petition, Mr. Ali had stated that he and another person had bought some plywood trees and cut some of them and that the local Range Officer was not allowing him to remove the logs as the Tahsildar had not forwarded to him the report of the Taluk Surveyor authenticating the relevant survey number. His prayer was that the Tahsildar should be asked to forward the Taluk Surveyor's report to the Range Officer and that he be helped to obtain "kuttipass" from the Periya Village Officer to remove logs for which pass from the forest authorities was not required. In a jotting on the margin of the petition, the Revenue Minister directed the District Collector, Wayanad, to take urgent remedial action and report back to him.

On tracing the history of the case, the Revenue Secretary found that Mr. Ali approached the Revenue Minister after owners of 139 acres of land in Periya village, the ownership of which itself was legalised through fraudulent means, illegally cut down the trees. This they did on the strength of a certificate issued by the Tahsildar, Mananthavady, for cutting dead trees. On April 18, 1999, the Tree Lovers Association alerted the Sub-Collector about possible tree felling in the land known as Vattoly Estate. The Sub-Collector asked the Tahsildar to inquire into it. The Tahsildar also reported the same. On January 23, 2000, a leading Malayalam daily reported that large-scale felling of trees was taking place in Vattoly estate.

The Revenue Secretary is highly critical of the then District Collector and has pointed out that there was a clear contradiction in the Collector's claim that he first came to know about the incident only on February 10, 2000, when the Revenue Minister forwarded the petition from Mr. Ali to him and his admission during the inquiry that he had come to know about large-scale illicit felling in Vattoly Estate through the news item published by a leading Malayalam daily.

The Revenue Secretary has also questioned the correctness of the Collector's decision to issue an order on March 6, 2000, releasing the illegally cut logs without waiting for the report of the Sub-Collector from whom he had already sought it on the basis of an earlier report from the local Tahsildar. "By virtue of this order, the culprits tried to remove two truck-loads of trees and even attempted to murder the policemen who came to prevent it... It is surprising to note that the next day, i.e. on 7.3.2000, the Collector received a report from the Sub-Collector recommending seizure of the wood!"

Mr. Thomson has also noted that the letter of the Sub-Collector, dated February 27, 2000, reached the Collector's table only on March 7. "In other words, it took 7 days for such an important letter from the S. D. M. on a burning issue to traverse a mere 31 kms. It is difficult to believe that there was delay in dispatch and distribution as the `Dealing Hand' was new... What prevented the Collector from picking up the telephone and talking to the Sub-Collector? Why was he in such a great hurry to issue the order of release? By issuing this order, the Collector has done irreparable damage to the credibility of the administration," the Revenue Secretary has said.

The Revenue Secretary has also expressed surprise about the actions of the DFO and the Junior Superintendent who handled the letter from the DFO. The DFO, who initially reported that the land involved was not covered by notification under Section 5 of the Kerala Protection of Trees Act, 1986, later realised her mistake and wrote a letter to the District Collector on February 10, 2000. Strangely, she did not do so on "name cover".

This letter reached the "Dealing Hand" on March 2 and the Junior Superintendent concerned the next day. But the Junior Superintendent, "who was well aware of the sensitivity of the case", chose to mark it back to the clerk for clubbing with another file! He never felt that he should bring it to the attention of the boss. And, the poor boss, unaware of the DFO's new finding, gave direction for the release of the logs. Even then, the JS did not feel like bringing this important letter to the Collector's notice. When questioned on this, the JS put the blame on his typist who was a new recruit. How can we allow such an irresponsible officer to continue in service," the report goes on to ask.

According to the Revenue Secretary, the collusion of Revenue officials was as old as 30 years and it would be difficult to identify the officers involved. "Officers from the Village Officer to Tahsildar have played a diabolical game and their involvement varies in degrees. The Taluk Office, Mananthavady,....is being run by a caucus of three junior officials playing second fiddle to the machinations of the Forest mafia. This caucus needs to be broken. The message should be loud and clear that the Revenue Department is second to none in taking stringent actions against erring officials," the Revenue Secretary has concluded.

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