Come clean on Botanic probe: HC

KOLKATA: Calcutta High Court on Friday asked the state government to declare its stand on the plea for a CBI probe into the alleged illegal felling of trees at the Botanic garden in Shibpur last year. The green Bench, comprising Chief Justice S S Nijjar and Justice Biswanath Somadder, asked advocate-general Balai Ray to inform the court about the state's stand on March 13 when the case will be heard next.
The Bench had constituted a fact-finding committee last November, when envorinmentalist Subhas Datta moved court alleging that about 100 fullgrown trees, some rare species, had been illegally felled at the Botanic garden. The committee , comprising Kolkata Police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti, advocate Anindya Mitra and principal chief conservator of forest Atanu Raha submitted their preliminary report in court. They recommended that the allegation be further probed by a professional investigating agency and indicated that outsiders were involved in the felling.
The court then decided to consider the preliminary report as a final report. Datta then prayed for a CBI probe into the illegal tree felling at the Botanic.
The advocate-general suggested in court on Friday that the fact-finding committee be asked to visit the garden again to I take stock of the latest situation . Consenting to Ray's suggestion , the court said Datta's assistance might be taken during the visit.
Datta had filed a public interest litigation in which he complained against "mismanagement and poor maintenance " of the botanical garden. The PIL complained that some time in November, about 100 full-grown trees were illegally chopped and smuggled out of the garden by a wood mafia network. Datta had pointed out that no permission was taken by the IBG authorities from the forest department, which is mandatory under West Bengal Protection of Trees in Non-Forest Areas Act, 2006.