Wildlife and Rights activist from the State capital Ajay Dubey has alleged that rampant felling of teak trees is being carried out by wood mafia in and around Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary (RWS) that is very close to the Assembly constituency of Budhni represented by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Dubey, a Board member of NGO- Transparency International India told reporters here on Thursday, “Teak trees are being slaughtered at the drop of a hat in an around RWS spread over Raisen and Sehore districts close to Bhopal. The sanctuary also spread over Sehore that happens to the home district of Chief Minister Chouhan.”
He said that though the Chief Minister claims of saving the forests of the State from the forest mafia but the conditions are so worst that the mafia is most active in his home Assembly constituency that falls under his home district.
To buttress his claim Dubey also secretary of NGO — Prayatna working for tiger conservation flashed some photographs showing trees being felled and transported.
He said that teak wood smugglers and mafia were slaughtering a huge number of trees and making crores of rupees unchecked. The famous activist said that the Central Government had given its nod to turn RWS into a tiger reserve, in 2008.
But on its part, he said the State Government was sitting tight over the issue due to reason best known to it.
He said that on request of the State Government Government of India has provided sanction of concerting RWS into tiger reserve in the year 2008 only but the State Government has not sent the proposal for issuing notification for the same.