Pune: The Union forest and environment ministry has told the state forest department to submit an action taken report on the issue of encroachments, tree cover reduction and land levelling in the reserved forest areas of Mohammadwadi and Kondhwa in the city. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC)'s assistant commissioner (forestry), Vinod Kumar, in a letter to the Maharashtra principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) on Aug 23, sought an environmental impact assessment and damage report related to the reserved forests in the two areas. "It is requested to kindly examine the matter and take appropriate necessary action as per the provisions of the extant acts, rules and regulations in force," the letter stated.
The action taken report must be communicated to the officials concerned at the earliest, the letter added. Jaymala Dhankikar, a social worker from NIBM Annexe in Mohammadwadi, had written to MoEFCC on Aug 8 highlighting the degrading biodiversity and green cover in the two areas and seeking attention to the issue. Dhankikar told TOI, "There has been devastating environmental damage in the Mohammadwadi and Kondhwa reserved forest area over the past 20 years.
Indiscriminate tree cutting and hilltop flattening for cement concrete malls and residential projects have severely harmed the ecosystem. All the land in this area and most of the hills are flattened and encroached upon by land mafia groups. The trees have been cut recklessly, which is wh.