HARIPUR: Deputy commissioner of Haripur Arifullah Awan has called the Pakistan Telecommuni-cation Company Limited director and district forest officer to his office today (Monday) over the felling of rare sheesham trees in the T&T Colony.

The development comes on the complaint of the PTCL workers.

The residents told reporters that healthy trees were chopped down on the greenbelt in the backyard of C-8 official bungalow and on the side of an orchard located opposite the Estate Office.

Some PTCL workers also objected to the felling of green trees but the lumberjacks using automatic saws didn’t halt the activity.

The fellers claimed that the PTCL director had asked them to cut down trees.

However, a protest by PTCL workers and the arrival of journalists prevented them from taking away the chopped trees, which were around 20 feet long.

When contacted, DFO Rizwan Kazmi confirmed the felling of trees in T&T Colony but said he was not sure if the trees were chopped down for being dry or strong winds had uprooted them. He said he had tasked his staff members with filing a report after examining trees.

The DFO said his department would act only if the PTCL tried to take the wood in question out of the T&T Colony.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2019