Troublemakers repeatedly damage & set fire to urban forest in Mohammadwadi | Pune News - Times of India

Source: The Times of India

Pune: The NGO and citizens managing the urban forest in Mohammadwadi, Anandvan 2, said troublemakers had intentionally set fire twice to the dried plantation on the premises. They had also attacked the watchman, stolen water pumps and pipes and broken parts of the boundary wall, among other damages.

The 19-acre urban forest was located at survey number 41 in Mohammadwadi.Around two hectare was burnt down over the last few days. The matter had been reported to local authorities, including the forest department and Kondhwa police.

Secretary of the NGO managing the forest Bhupesh Sharma said, "On April 27, I got a call about the fire. I notified our internal fire rescue team. Fifteen volunteers, including me, managed to douse the fire in 20 minutes. However, half a hectare of the plantations was destroyed. We informed the forest department too. Officials took a look at the footage from CCTV cameras on the property and found youngsters throwing burning cloth balls into the forest and the fire was spreading quickly because of the dry grass."

He said, "The forest department spoke to the families of the youngsters to warn them not to indulge in such activities. However, on April 29, a bigger fire was lit. At 9pm, one of our workers was passing by and saw it. He informed the internal fire rescue team. The Pune fire brigade was alerted and it doused the fire in 30 minutes. Yet another stretch of the urban forest was charred."

NGO volunteers had not been able to rest since February when such intentional fires, robberies and attacks started. On February 20 and 21, intentional fires were set on the premises leaving over two acre of charred waste which the volunteers worked hard to repair. It was further damaged with more instances of intentional fires in April.

The forest department planned to take stringent action against such troublemakers. Chief conservator of forests NR Praveen said, "We have deployed range forest officers to patrol the area, being more alert after sundown. We will also deploy drones to monitor nefarious activities in and around the premises. We appeal to residents of nearby housing societies to call the toll free helpline number 1962 to report information about any such illegal activities."

Praveen said, "We have identified a couple of people from nearby slum areas based on the evidence we have collected and action will be taken against them."