Indore: In the incident of tree girdling and alleged illegal tree felling in Choral , two forest guards and two deputy rangers have been suspended by forest department for negligence. A show-cause notice was also issued to the range officer and the sub divisional officer.Sources said 450 trees were girdled by residents of Choral’s Ashapura village in forest area as a long term planning so that the trees may dry up and fall in future to help the villagers in collecting their wood under the Forest Rights Act. “Since Choral range is a sensitive area and girdling trees is a recurring problem of the area, we have decided to set up a patrolling unit at Ashapura and have also set up a check post there. It will ensure strict patrolling to prevent any illegal activities,” CCF Indore Purushottam Dhiman said.Senior forest officials have also claimed that girdling of trees had taken place during the strike of forest officers and rangers in May and June this year.The inspection committee member, who was directed to give a report on illegal activities, has alleged that the CCF Indore pressurized him to manipulate the number of trees cut in the region to reduce liability on senior officials.Refuting the allegation levelled on him the CCF stated that strict action will be taken against the perpetrators.Deputy ranger from Mhow, Ram Suresh Dubey, has alleged that he was humiliated by Dhiman and was forced to reduce the numbers on paper.“CCF Dhiman not only pressurized me but also humiliated me. He asked me to count out certain number of trees cut in the region so that the onus will not fall on seniors,” Dubey told TOI. He claimed that he had found 285 tree stumps, 487 girdled trees, and a lot of wood lying around in the forest area.CCF Dhiman said that he had only asked that the tree stumps for which a case was registered earlier should not be counted twice by the team investigating the recent activities. “I had never met the person making these allegations,” Dhiman said.

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