Nawalparasi, September 7:

Forest users claim People’s Liberation Army (PLA) personnel of the fourth division camp have been illegally felling trees in a community forest in Nawalparasi district. The users said the PLA personnel were found to be felling Sal trees from the proposed Setipani Community Forest. Local residents of Kolhuwa village are responsible for the conservation of resources of the community forest.

Members of the forest management committee said they found logs felled from the forest in Pragati Saw Mill. The members said PLA personnel were found to have taken 336 cubic feet of timber from the forest to the mill for sawing. However, chief of the PLA’s fourth division, Yam Bahadur Thapa ‘Pratikhya’, expressed ignorance over the matter. “We have urged the PLA not to fell trees without our permission. But the plea has fallen on deaf ears,” said the Kawasoti Forest Office.