Our Correspondent
Bishnupur, June 2 (EMN): The process of cutting down a total of 1634 standing trees on both sides of the ongoing Tiddim road expansion at Bishnupur district sector in Manipur has been stopped following a case in the High Court of Manipur, according to officials of Bishnupur Forest Division (BFD).
‘The auction of the standing trees has been done but the other necessary steps could not be taken up following a public interest litigation in the high court,’ said Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) RK Amarjit of Bishnupur district on Saturday.
The tree species to be cut during the road expansion project undertaken by the state works department in Bishnupur district include 20 banyan trees, eucalyptus, jarkanta and such. The total length of the Tiddim road expansion in the district is about 30 km starting from Utlou to Tronglaobi.
Amarjit was delivering a lecture on overview of the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 during the one-day workshop on ‘sensitisation of wildlife, forest and environment laws’ at Kiyamba hall in Bishnupur district headquarters located 30 km south of Imphal on Saturday. The workshop was organised by BFD in collaboration with many district organisations.
Likewise, Deputy Director Dr. T Brajakumar of environment department spoke on relevant sections on pollution, mining and such, under the Environment Protection Act of 1986 and various directions of National Green Tribunal and their relevance to Manipur.
During the event, wildlife warden of Bishnupur district, RK Birjit Singh, also shared a talk on the importance of wildlife conservation with special reference to Manipur. The conservator of forest of Manipur, L Joykumar Singh, spoke on relevant sections of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 and role of the enforcement agencies.
The workshop was inaugurated by the chief judicial magistrate of Bishnupur district Monalisha Maibam.
