Timber logs in floodwaters: Green activists welcome SC intervention

One of the videos, widely circulated on social media, showed large number of logs floating in the Pong Dam in Mandi. A second clip surfaced later from the Ravi River, near the Old Sheetla Suspension Bridge in Chamba, showing a similar accumulation of wooden debris. The visuals raised concerns of illegal timber felling in ecologically fragile regions.

Kullu-based activist Sandeep Minhas said the apex court’s intervention was timely but stressed that the issue should not be closed merely after the state’s response. “We expect the Supreme Court will not shut the matter just after reviewing the government’s version. The court should direct the state to bring a sustainable development policy suited to the topography and ecological needs of mountain states, instead of allowing haphazard projects in fragile zones,” Minhas said.

Earlier, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had ordered a CID probe into the accumulation of logs in Pong Dam after a preliminary inquiry by the state forest department on July 8 ruled out illegal felling in the Beas catchment area. The CID inquiry, however, is still pending. Similarly, after reports of logs floating in the Ravi River, the forest department again denied illegal felling.

Conservator of Forest, Kangra, Rakesh Kumar, said, “After the videos were shared on the social media, we were told to look into the matter. We verified the wood and logs floating into the water and also visited many areas affected with cloudbursts, landslides etc on the banks of river Ravi. We found no traces of illegal felling, sleepers etc. The logs that came floating down Old Sheetla Suspension Bridge are the uprooted trees and most of them have stumps and trunks intact suggesting these were not axed trees. We have submitted our report”.

Conservator of Forest Rakesh Kumar claimed that the wooden logs did not accumulate in the Ravi instantly. “There are two-three major dams at Chamela. The trees which were uprooted time to time due to the landslides and other events first assembled in these dams. As the water level increased and dams’ flood gates were opened, these logs floated downstream,” he said.

In July, the Forest and Wildlife Department had ruled out any illegal felling and suggested that cloudbursts on June 25 over the Garsa Valley in the Parvati Forest Division and the Greater Himalayan National Park (GHNP) in Kullu district triggered extensive uprooting of trees.

A report prepared by the forest department following the probe further added that the uprooted trees, along with fallen dead wood, were swept nearly 27 km downstream by the gushing waters before eventually accumulating at the Pandoh Dam on River Beas in Mandi.

The fact finding probe was ordered by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Sameer Rastogi on June 28 following an uproar after videos and photos of the logs flushing down the river and floating in the Pandoh dam went viral.

Despite the forest department’s clarifications, environmentalists argue that the presence of such large volume of timber highlights gaps in forest monitoring and disaster preparedness.

Meanwhile, interacting with media, Industry Minister Harshwardhan Chauhuan said the forest officials must go out in the field to check if there is any illegal felling of trees/ Asked about the Supreme Court’s remarks, he said, “IFS, DFOs should go to the forests to check what is going on there”.

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