Don't fell trees at Kotharepally till further orders: TS HC to govt

Hyderabad: Telangana High Court has directed the state government not to cut down trees on 100 acres of land at Kotharepally village till further orders.The land, abutting the Damagundem forests in the Vikarabad district, has been allotted for establishing National Prison Academy (NPA).

The division bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili heard the PIL filed by the Damagundam Forest Protection Joint Action Committee, a registered society represented by its president Lingoji Muralidhar Rao. It had complained against the government's move to cut more than one lakh trees in the land.

The petitioners said the land was adjacent to the forest and it contained rare species of trees and plants with medical value. They also said that the land in the survey number measured 300 acres, no land allowed for cultivation, and was not being assigned for any person though it was not forest land.

Rachana V., counsel for the petitioners, submitted that documents prepared by the Survey of India in 1969 had shown larger forest cover in the Damagundem forest compared to that of 2001-02.

Further, counsel said that till 2021 the government had furnished that the land would not be handed over to any department. Now, all of sudden, it was planning to remove the green cover in the guise of establishing the National Prison Academy.

After hearing the contentions, the court directed the government not to cut trees on the land till the next date of the hearing. The PIL will be heard after summer vacation.