Lucknow, January 02: The Principal Secretary (forests) VN Garg has ordered on Tuesday that from now on, the officers concerned of a particular forest range would be held responsible in case of reports of illegal cutting of forests in the state.
The move comes following several reports of illegal cutting of forests from several ranges of the state. Garg said that since the main job of the department is to protect forests, officials in whose range the illegal cutting is reported should be held responsible.
Garg added that it is ironical that the officials concerned are not even reporting the matter to the state head office and the department is getting reports through the media, which shows the lackdiasical attitude of the range officers.
He has ordered that any reports regarding any kind of illegal activity or poaching would be reported to the head office or else stern action would be taken against the officials.