TURA: The Association for Democracy and Empowerment (ADE) on Friday criticized the decision of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) to cut down trees from its reserve forests and auction it in an effort to generate revenue to enable the payment of employees’ salaries.
“The decision for auctioning several hundreds of mature trees of Damalgre Range, Naguapara Range, Phulbari Range and Samanda Range forest areas by the GHADC is extremely disturbing. In these distressful times while we face hazards of climate change and environmental catastrophes, the GHADC instead of strengthening efforts to fight such problems is doing exactly the opposite. The
cutting down of these trees is going to lead to negative impacts on the ecosystem and the environment as a whole,” the association said.
The NGO added that the decision is likely to have drastic effects even locally and a few surviving species of flora and fauna are now going to be threatened with extinction in Garo Hills.
“Isn’t this decision of cutting trees the same like cutting off our own lungs? While the world works towards mass plantation in all countries to reverse climate change, our Council has lost its mind,”
they added.
The NGO referred to the example of the Delhi government which sought to restrict vehicular movement to save people from pollution.
“Can we exchange life for money? We have been fortunate to have such a mature virgin forest in our land. Has the EC led by CEM of GHADC gone psychotic and mad to order cutting of mature trees? Moreover how can he determine that the trees are mature enough to be done away with,”
they asked.
The ADE while urging other organizations to join together in opposition also demanded that the decision is withdrawn by the authorities while at the same time warning that it would face agitation if it was not done.
