Forest dept issues notice to 15 societies for dumping garbage near Taljai hill

The Pune Forest Department has issued notices to 15 societies along with the Dhankawdi ward office over the garbage dumping in the reserve forest area at Taljai Hill. The department asked the ward office to take necessary action to prevent such incidents and also collect the garbage thrown into the reserve forest area.

The forest area of Taljai Hill reported four forest fire incidents within the last twenty days. These repeated incidents have been affecting the plantation as well as the local biodiversity, especially the native plant species. The citizens from the area as well as the conservationists have raised concerns over the security lapses and lack of preparedness from the forest department to deal with the issue.

After such repetitive forest incidents, the forest department has launched an investigation and found that while most of the time forest fire incidents are caused due to man-made activities, open garbage dumping from the societies also contributed to spreading the fire into forest areas. The officials in the last month have also caught some people red-handed while dumping garbage into the reserve forest area.

Based on their findings, the forest official on February 20, issued a notice to 15 societies in the closed vicinity of the Taljai reserve forest area along with the Dhankwadi ward office over the garbage dumping issue.

The notice stated that the families living in the societies sharing the boundaries with the reserve forest area of Panchgaon Parvati or the Taljai hill reserve forest area are seen throwing garbage into the forest area through their windows or balconies. The garbage is not in the segregated form. The department in this notice also requested the ward office to collect the garbage in the said area and send them for further procedure.

Speaking about this Manoj Barbole, range forest officer, Pune Forest Department said, “The notice has been issued to the ward office as well as the 15 societies that are found responsible for throwing garbage in the forest area. Our team will also communicate with society officials and efforts will be taken to prevent such things from happening again in the future.”

Meanwhile, the forest also recorded another forest fire incident on Thursday. A team of forest officials and the fire brigade worked closely to douse the fire. The department is investigating the loss as well as the possible reason for this incident.