A man was booked on Sunday for felling of trees in Ghatshila forest range area.

This is the second arrest from the same forest range for felling trees in the past one week.

Tree-felling by the villagers is on the rise as those are being sold off as firewood and other purposes, and has turned out to be an alternative source of income in Ghatshila and Chakulia forest areas amid the prevailing lockdown.

Acting on tip-offs, the forest department has registered as many as 10 cases against the tree-fellers and arrested two of them, Sudarshan Gorai, 45, and Ganesh Mardi, 45, during the past one week.

Sudarshan was arrested on Sunday.

Ghatshila and Chakulia forests, bordering Bengal, is about 60km and 75km from the steel city, respectively.

Jamshedpur divisional forest office under which the two forest stretches fall has swung into action after getting information about sporadic tree felling from the twin forests.

Jamshedpur divisional forest officer (DFO) Abhishek Kumar said: “Though we remain alert about tree felling, the illegal act is on in several pockets of both the Ghatshila and Chakulia forests and parts of the Patamda forest.

“It seems that the villagers who used to work at construction sites or as daily wage earners have taken to tree felling,” said Kumar.

Kumar admitted that a large number of villagers who are very needy and survive on collecting dry woods from the forest, too, have started tree felling as an alternative to their source of income.

“Keeping the predicament of these villagers in view, we have been feeding them cooked food at a number of places. We are arranging for the food ourselves so that they are not tempted to fell trees. But we can’t reach out to all the villages in the forest cover,” said the DFO.

A section of the villagers had on Sunday spotted a group of tree-fellers at Darisahi village in Ghatshila and had informed the local forest guard. But the forester refused to rush to the spot, claiming that he is posted somewhere else to prevent people from killing wild animals marking the Sendra festival on Monday.

Dasrath Murmu, a resident of the same village, said: “Soon after we spotted a group of villagers who were busy in tree felling we had informed a forest guard. But as no one came from the forest department, the group managed to axe two trees in Darisahi.'

According to the villagers in Ghatshila, some timber merchants active in the forest area are also inducing the villagers to chop the trees.