Now, PAC wants status of Mattewara forest upgraded

Tribune News Service

Harshraj Singh

Ludhiana, September 19

The public action committee (PAC), which was formed to save the Mattewara forest and Sutlej, has sent a proposal to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for the upgrade of the forest.

Following the massive campaigns organised by the PAC, the state government had to earlier scrap a proposed textile park project, which was supposed to be set up near the Mattewara forest in Ludhiana district.

Now for the upgrade of the Mattewara forest, environmental activists of the PAC demand that the government should “upgrade the existing status of the protected forest to a protected area of Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and protection of the protected area having eco-sensitive zone around its periphery in the close vicinity under Section 18 of the Wildlife Act of 1972.”

Col CM Lakhanpal (retd), a senior member of the PAC, said there had been a constant decline in the forest cover of the state. There was a requirement to maintain jungles, increase their density and create new forests and green belts.

He said: “Mattewara forests exist in a group and are located in patches, existing in the close vicinity of each other in areas namely Mattewara, Garhi Fazal, Jaspal Kadar, Haider Nagar, New Haider Nagar and Salem Pur. When our meeting was held with CM Bhagwant Mann in July, a discussion was held for the upgrade of the forest. Now, we have sent a proposal in this regard to him.”

PAC members said demarcation of the flood plain area of the Sutlej must be done and it should be declared a no construction zone. The committee has sought from the government to appoint a coordinator and administrator from the Forest Department to upgrade the forest. It also demanded provisioning of firefighting resources to protect the jungles from forest fires. The committee members suggested shifting of the existing road alignment of a stretch of Rahon Road, at present passing through the Mattewara forest.

The PAC members said the government must return the 416 acres, which were earlier acquired for the proposed textile park project, to the panchayat of Sekhowal village.

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