Pune : Urban Joint Forest Management Committee To Monitor Taljai Hills 

Regarding forest management, the Sahakarnagar Citizens Forum and the forest department met yesterday (11^th March 2024) to address longstanding concerns and demands from the community. As a result, the forest department has decided to set up an Urban Joint Forest Management Committee (UJFMC) which will be the authority for monitoring, taking action etc regarding activities, forest management etc on Taljai Tekdi.

Speaking to Pune Pulse, Amit Abhyankar, Founder Member, Sahakarnagar Citizens’ Forum, said “A meeting regarding the Independent Forest Committee is to be conducted tomorrow (13^th March) which will be open for all. It has been decided that henceforth, any kind of work/activity etc will be done only under the watch of the Committee. Recently, a lot of tree cutting has happened on Taljai Tekdi. However, from now on, the tree-cutting activities will be stopped completely & if they are to happen, they will only happen under the watch of the Committee.”

Over the past years, there has been a notable lack of communication from the forest department to the citizens of Sahakarnagar regarding the ongoing activities within the Taljai Forest Department

The Sahakarnagar Citizen Forum presented several demands to the forest department:

·         A joint inspection of ongoing tree felling activities by the forest department, environmental experts, and citizens to ensure compliance with regulations. If unauthorized tree felling is discovered, appropriate action should be taken against those responsible.

·         Implementation of a system to record the entry and exit of vehicles at the forest department gate, along with the mandatory display of Forest Duty signboards on entering vehicles.

·         Requirement for forest department passes for contractors’ employees working within the forest area.

·         Mandating the presence of a knowledgeable and responsible forest department officer during any tree felling or plantation activities.

·         Installation of prominent information boards at all entry and exit gates of the forest department, detailing ongoing work, location, duration, and contractor information.

·         Installation of CCTV surveillance at entry and exit.

As per further information about the Urban Joint Forest Management Committee (UJFMC) shared by Mahadev Mohite, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Pune Forest Department,

Pursuant to the subject, everyone is hereby informed that a meeting has been organized for discussion on 13/03/2024 at Conference Hall, 2nd Floor, Van Bhavan, Bhamburda, Gokhalenagar, Pune – 411016 at 5:00 PM regarding implementation of Urban Joint Forest Management Committee (UJFMC). Hence, everyone should be present for this on time.

In order to effectively manage the hills and forests in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporations, an open discussion session was held on 4/3/2024 with a view of reviving separate Urban Joint Forest Management Committees (UJFMC) and taking action in accordance with the guidelines of the Government Decision dated 4 August 2015. According to the meeting, it has been planned to take the following actions:

·         For functioning of independent Urban Joint Forest Management Committee (UJFMC) for hills, forest parks, tourist spots etc falling within areas of urban forest division, interested members should be enrolled and registered organizations should also be enrolled as members.

·         An executive committee should be formed from the registered members and the officers mentioned as per the government decision, former corporators of the concerned ward and appointed members will participate. Apart from this, the Executive Committee will consist of two representatives each from the interested registered organizations registered as members.

·         The Executive Committee should determine the working procedure in accordance with the principle of government decisions, laws, approved work plans, government circulars and considering the suggestions of the members in the meetings held from time to time and should amend it from time to time.

·         The Executive Committee should make efforts to make the Urban Joint Forest Management Committee self-sufficient. Also, to facilitate the daily work, internal sub-committees should be created to divide and plan the work and manage all the records.

·         On the first Monday of every month, at 5.00 pm, a joint meeting of the members of the Urban Forest Management Committee will be held at Van Bhavan, Gokhalenagar, Pune-16 and the members should hold separate meetings as required.

·         L.N. Shinde, Accountant, contact No – 70389 97766, will act as Liaison Officer of Urban Joint Forest Management Committee from Deputy Conservator of Forests, Pune office.

Shreyas Vange