The petitioner, Saurabh Tiwary, who filed a plea concerning the illegal felling of trees at Banaras Hindu University, has urged the National Green Tribunal to impose a significant fine on the university and its vice chancellor.
His request follows a report from a panel that revealed 33 trees, including seven sandalwood and 26 other species, were illegally cut down within the university’s 1,300-acre campus. Tiwary’s response, filed on November 9, calls for a hefty compensation fine to be levied on BHU for the environmental damage caused, in addition to penalties against the vice chancellor.
The petitioner also requested remediation efforts to restore the environment.
Tiwary further alleged that the local police had “closed” the investigation into the illegal felling of the sandalwood trees and their theft, suggesting that police were complicit with university officials.
He proposed the formation of a high-powered committee to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter, and called for criminal action against any BHU officials found guilty or corrupt. The petitioner also suggested that satellite images could help determine the full extent of the tree felling.
A panel, consisting of Varanasi’s Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) and the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change’s Lucknow regional office, submitted its findings on October 29. The panel confirmed that the petitioner’s claims regarding the illegal tree felling were accurate.
It further reported that university officials had claimed the sandalwood trees were stolen. The report raised concerns about the suspicious nature of the theft, given the university’s 24-hour security guards, CCTV cameras, and tight security measures at all gates.
The report questioned how the trees were felled and the wood removed overnight, and criticized the university’s failure to make any significant efforts to apprehend the culprits or recover the stolen wood.
