GBA files complaint over illegal felling of 101 trees

Bengaluru: The forest cell of the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) has filed a complaint alleging that Embassy East Business Park Private Limited cut down 101 trees without permission from officials.

The complaint, filed by the Range Forest Officer, Bengaluru East City Corporation, said that the felling of trees without permission is punishable under Section 8 of the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976. Though the incident took place in December, it came to light only recently. The accused company is also said to have transported the timber after illegally felling the trees. Activists alleged that this was not the first time the group had carried out illegal tree felling. In 2007, illegal tree felling was detected and an FIR was registered, they said.

“Then, a penalty of Rs one lakh was imposed and for a while thereafter, tree felling stopped. In 2020, by circumventing the law, the BBMP Forest Cell issued permission for felling 42 trees. This was a devious attempt to bypass the law, as permission for the felling of more than 50 trees requires advertisement and a public hearing. Using this faulty permission, hundreds of trees were felled from 2022 to 2025,” an activist alleged.