Mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday asked Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) officials to lodge an FIR after a caller in the weekly phone-in programme, “Talk to Mayor”, told him a tree had been hacked in Kasba to make space for cars.
An official said there was a standing instruction to civic officials to lodge a police complaint if it was found a tree had been chopped off without the forest department’s consent and a no-objection certificate(NOC) from the KMC.
Hakim asked officials to plant saplings in the space where the old tree stood.
The caller, from Kasba’s Bosepukur, told mayor Hakim that old cars on sale remained parked around the space where the tree stood.
As the tree created problems for the display of the cars, the person running the business chopped off the tree, the caller said.
The mayor then asked KMC officials to lodge an FIR.
“ Please lodge an FIR. Killing a tree is like killing a human being,” Hakim said.
Anyone suspicious that a tree is being felled illegally can ask those chopping off the tree for permission, said an official in the state forest department.
Permission is required even if one wants to cut a tree on his or her premises
If it is found that a tree has been hacked illegally, one can lodge a complaint with the police, forest department or the KMC, officials said.
A resident of Kolkata who wants to cut a tree must first obtain an NOC from the KMC.
An application has to be sent to the divisional forest officer (utilisation) along with the NOC seeking permission to cut the tree.
The applications can be made online on the forest department’s website.