Officials took action on Sunday against eight people allegedly involved in cutting down precious trees. According to Swat District Commissioner Junaid Khan, he received a complaint from civil society ACTIVISTS which prompted the DC office to take necessary action on illegal cutting down of precious trees.
” All the nabbed people are the members of local jirga who were accused of cutting trees on the premise of Mangalore burial ground,” Junaid said, adding that the detained jirga members were now in police custody and would be produced before the court.
District Forest Officer Waseem Khan, also present on the occasion, said in this regard that felling precious trees was a crime and those found guilty would be punished accordingly.
” The government has been investing heavily on plantation drives to maintain a balanced environment,” the DFO said and warned people of strict punishment if found guilty in cases pertaining to cutting down of trees.
Meanwhile, Ghaffar Khan, spokesperson for the national jirga, confirmed the arrest of some of the Jirga members and maintained that cutting down the trees was done for constructing boundary walls around the Manglore’s burial ground.
“Trees were cut down to finance the construction of safety wall around the Manglore’s burial place which has ,so far, cost us rupees in millions ,Ghaffar said, he maintained that the arrested people had been the members of Jirga and had nothing to do with cutting down those trees for personal use.
