BHUBANESWAR : Expressing concern over allegations of forest depletion, Orissa High Court has directed the authorities of Badrama Wildlife Division in Bargarh district to make a detailed inquiry into the matter within four weeks of receiving the order.

About 50 villagers, mostly tribals, had filed a public interest petition seeking intervention of the High Court to check illegal felling of trees in their surroundings.

A Division Bench comprising Justice A.K. Ganguly and Justice N. Prusty ordered the district Collector and superintendent of police of Bargarh to take strict action within six weeks of submission of inquiry report by the divisional forest officer (DFO) of Badrama Wildlife Division.

The Court asked the DFO to treat the writ petition as representation and submit the report to Bargarh district authorities.

In their petition before the court, the villagers alleged that Lohra Reserve Forest and Debrigarh Reserve Forest were regularly depleting fast due to illegal felling of trees by timber mafia but forest officials were not taking any actions to check the crime.Disposing of the writ petition, the Bench said the action taken report from the collector and SP should be placed before it in a sealed cover.

Counsel for the villagers Bibhu Prasad Tripathy submitted before the court that, "the tribal residents surrounding the reserved forests on many occasions had drawn attention of officials on tree felling and even confiscated logs from the mafias. But on later stage, they found no actions from officials."

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