Rautahat, August 3

District Forest Officer, Rautahat, and five staffers have been booked following an investigation report over deforestation in the national forest of Rautahat.

Earlier, the Forest Ministry had deployed a probe committee to investigate the felling of 20 saal trees in the forest area under the jurisdiction of Dhansar Area Forest Office about three weeks ago.

The tree felling had damaged 25 other saal trees.

The incident had created headlines despite all-out efforts of the concerned forest staffers to cover the episode.

District Forest Officer of Rautahat, Shribhagawan Gupta, along with assistant forest officers Shubh Narayan Yadav and Ramkewal Yadav were called to the Forest Ministry today, while armed forest guards Jamadar Gyasudin Dewan, Rajdev Kushwaha and Birendra Tiwari have been told to present themselves at the Forest Department.

Often times, the reports furnished by probe committees that are occasionally formed to investigate unauthorised tree feeling are not implemented or taken seriously.

This had bolstered the tree fellers’ morale. However, this time, the report of the probe committee led by Deputy Director General Hem Aryal of the Forest Department was put into implementation.

According to Forest Ministry Spokesperson Prem Kadel, further investigation of the accused forest staffers is under way.