An axe that went awry
A legislation that has deterred people from planting trees
In May this year, this magazine ran a story about a person in Orissa who was hard put to cut down trees in his patch of land. He faced bureaucratic hurdles galore. There are many like him in the country. A lot of their problems can be blamed on tree preservation acts in various states of the country.
The origins of these acts lie in Karnataka. I was among those responsible for framing it. Let me describe the context. In mid-1970s, there was rampant tree felling in rural and urban Karnataka. The Land Reforms Act had left the issue of ownership of trees vague and both landlords and tenants were keen on appropriating trees before the matter got settled. In Kodagu, large blocks of forests left untouched by the district