Himachal rapped for timber rights misuse

The Himachal Pradesh government may be forced to ban an archaic timber distribution right enjoyed by villagers here due to an intervention by the court.

Some villagers can sanction a giant pine tree free while others have to pay commercial rates of at least Rs 50,000 for the same tree.

"To preserve forests in the state we direct that neither the state government nor any functionary of the state shall permit felling of trees under the timber distribution(TD) rights," said Chief Justice of the Himachal High Court Vinod Gupta last week.

Even though the court has made it clear it doesn't intend to extinguish the traditional TD rights but certain interim directions should be passed to avoid its misuse.

The state government has been asked to file a reply within six weeks on the misuse TD rights issue.

The court mediated in the matter after a local resident Ratanjeet Singh wrote to the court alleging that politicians and bureaucrats had failed to protect the rich forest wealth of the state.

"Influential persons of the state, in connivance with corrupt forest, revenue and police department officials, were misusing the TD rights," the petitioner alleged.

"Instead of building houses from wood procured under TD rights for the villagers, it was finding its way into furniture factories and even smuggled out of the state through rivers," he said.

TD right is a right enjoyed by the hill folk of the state where villagers are given trees free to help them build and repair their homes every 10 years. But influential persons were availing this right three to four times in a decade.

Since long there has been a growing resentment among people in the state who did not enjoy this right and had to procure wood at commercial rates instead.

"A medium sized pine deodar tree has a commercial value of over Rs 50,000 but a villager under TD rights can have the same from the government by paying a paltry Rs 3," said an environmentalist.

"Added to this ridiculous law is the further misuse of the TD rights by influential persons, so to do away with this archaic right makes sense," the environmentalist said.

Contrary to the state government claims that the forest cover has gone up here, environmentalists pointed out a recent Indian forest report which said the forest cover has instead gone down marginally.