BHUBANESWAR: The Dhenkanal administration on Saturday felled around 500 sal trees in Jhinkargadi forest of Balarampur village in the district to enable a private company to build a brewery. Facing strong protests from locals, especially women, the administration took the help of police to cut down the trees.The villagers, who were aware of the administration’s plans, lined up in front of the trees since early morning on Saturday and tried to prevent their felling. Women clung to the trees to physically protect them. “However, police pulled us away and cut the trees using electric saws. At least 500 trees were felled within minutes,” said Nibesini Biswal, one of the protesting women.Jhinkargadi forest has been the site of a protracted dispute between the government and the villagers. Once part of the village’s communal land, the forest, which has around 5,000 sal trees, has been tended to by the locals for generations. Male members of each household are known to patrol the forest to prevent timber mafia from cutting down trees. Even the villagers of Balarampur are not allowed to snap off branches without permission of the village elders. However, some years ago, the government began the process of changing the land’s classification to allow it to become part of its land bank.Sources in the government said 12 acres of the forest, which is not notified as such, had been allotted for the brewery unit, to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 102 crore. “Cutting of fully grown trees is a crime. The government could have allotted a different patch of land to the brewery,” said Sushanta Dhala, secretary of Balarampur Gramya Parichalana Parishad, an outfit of villagers.

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