CBI probe into Periya tree-felling case

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, NOV. 2. A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday ordered a CBI inquiry into the allegation of illegal felling of trees from Periya forests in Wayanad in collusion with the former Revenue Minister, Mr. K.E. Ismail, and the former Forest Minister, Dr. Neelalohithadasan Nadar.

The Bench, comprising the Chief Justice, Mr. B.N. Srikrishna, and Mr. Justice M. Ramachandran, directed the CBI to file the progress report of the investigation into the case after three months.

The Judges directed the CBI to conduct the investigation after treating the report of Mr. Jiji Thomson, former Revenue Secretary, who inquired into the allegation, as an FIR.

The court made it clear that the investigation should not be confined to the matters in the report alone but all other matters relating to the illegal felling.

The Bench issued the directive on a writ petition filed by the Nature Lovers' Movement, Kochi. When the petition came up before the Bench, the Advocate General, Mr. M. Ratna Singh, submitted that the State Government had no objection to the allegations being investigated by the CBI. The Jiji Thomson report had been produced before the court by the Advocate General in a sealed cover.

The report, according to the petitioner, had recommended a further inquiry by an independent investigation agency into the allegations. It was pointed out that though the report was submitted to the State Government as early as June 21, 2000, no action had been taken on the report.

According to the petitioners, the Jiji Thomson report pointed to the active collusion of the former Ministers, the former Advocate General, Mr. M.K. Damodaran, and other revenue and forest officials, including the Chief Conservator of Forests (Protection), Mr. Premachandran Nair, and Mr. K.K. Srivastava, Chief Conservator of Forests (Vigilance).

The petitioners pointed out that the office of the then Revenue Minister had allegedly played a crucial role in facilitating the illegal tree felling from the forest area.

In fact, the disputed forest land at Periya village originally belonged to Mr. A.K. Khaderkutty who had a lease-hold right over 390.81 acres of the land. Of this, 100 acres had been leased to Ms. Koyappathodi Kuttibi and her minor children as per the Marupattom document. In 1978, Ms. Kuttibi had entered into an agreement with Ms. Rasheeda and others for selling 139 acres of land, instead of 100 acres.

As Ms. Kuttibi could not honour the agreement, Ms. Rasheeda and others had filed a suit and obtained a decree in their favour. Thereafter, the 139 acres of land had been sold to 16 persons who, after obtaining the land, had submitted an application before the RDO, Wayanad, for conversion of cardamom plantation to coffee plantation.

However, the applications were rejected. When permission was refused, Mr. C.P. Ali, the power-of-attorney holder of the property owners, had felled 431 trees from 49.44 acres of land. The writ petition filed by the petitioner against these felling was still pending before the court.

It was Mr. Jiji Thomson, the then Revenue Secretary, who had conducted an inquiry ordered by the LDF Government. He had submitted his report on June 20, 2000, which recommended a high- level inquiry into the issue.

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Section  : Southern States
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