Botanic boss surrenders

KOLKATA: Nine months after TOI first reported the felling of a large number of trees inside Indian Botanic Garden, Shibpur, the director of Botanical Survey of India, Girija Shankar Giri, surrendered before Howrah's chief judicial magistrate on Saturday. Giri had earlier failed to respond to a summons served on him to appear in court on July 6, after which a warrant was issued against him.He was granted bail after his surrender.
On November 16, morning walkers first spotted a large number of hacked trees inside the garden. When TOI visited the garden in the afternoon, at least a dozen felled trees were lying next to a huge tract of cleared' land. Giri had then claimed that 20-odd trees had been felled to "revive the garden's original condition", but insiders said the authorities were in talks with a corporate house to build an amusement park there.
A probe by the state forest department found that 18 rare trees were felled on the director's instruction. The department then lodged a formal complaint against him under the West Bengal Trees (Protection and Conservation) Act.
Garden insiders revealed that far more than 18 trees the number that the authorities owned up were felled and bulldozers were used in the operation. "At least 70 trees were felled and many of these were buried. Just let the dust settle a bit and the trees would be unearthed and sold," one of them said. The garden authorities, they claimed, had pushed the BSI to allow the setting up of an amusement park on the plea that it would generate revenue. "The tree felling controversy came as a blessing in disguise as it stalled this move. It perhaps saved the garden," said a Botanic official.
Sources said trees felled in the Botanic Garden are never auctioned as timber but sold as firewood which clandestinely reaches the market for use in the manufacture of low and high cost furniture.