: Ignoring the state finance minister's suggestion to increase state forest coverage to 33 per cent from the existing 27 per cent earlier this month, a CPI-M-run Bural gram panchayat in Sabang block in Midnapore West has aimed to increase their revenue by felling trees reared by a group of tree-huggers. Mr Asim Dasgupta, the state finance minister, had made this suggestion while discussing the environmental impact of degrading trees at a function in Kolkata. Mr Krishnagopal Ghoroi of Rambhadrapur Paschim and his co-workers, at whose initiative approximately 3,000 trees of different varieties were planted on 3 km stretch along the Kakardaha-Thakurboni Road in 1983, are awaiting the day some trees will be felled by the panchayat. Mr Ghoroi has been actively working to preserve the trees since September 2006 when a large number of trees were felled by the locals. He brought the matter to the notice of the district magistrate, divisional forest officer (Kharagpur division), chief conservators of forests and the West Bengal Pollution Control Board in writing but to no avail. Later, he submitted a mass petition to the higher echelons of the government, including the state governor, chief minister and the forest minister, urging them to step in to protect the remaining trees . But that too fell on deaf ears although they used to deliver sermons on the necessity of plantation, he regretted. Around 1,000 trees which survived man's and nature's vagaries are lying at the mercy of the panchayat. Considering their timber value to the tune of Rs 10 lakh, the local panchayat could not resist their temptation to fell the trees for inflating their revenue packet. But they have neither cared nor invested anything for the plantation. Recently, 700 of them have been marked by the panchayat to fell them in a few days, disregarding his lone feeble voice for the sake of the environment, Mr Ghoroi said. Fed up with the inactive administration, Mr Ghoroi and his co-worker, Mr Bhim Chandra Jana, have written to the chief justice of Calcutta High Court and the chairman of West Bengal Human Rights Commission on 3 February as their last resort to rescue the trees before being axed by the panchayat. The gram prodhan, Mr Kamal Burman was not available for his comment. However, the DFO, Kharagpur, Mr MK Mandal, said he did not receive any communication from Mr Ghoroi over the matter although he had joined the post in September, 2006.