Social organisations in Alipurduar district have started organising movements against the recent felling of trees in the compound of Raymond Memorial Higher Secondary School situated near Falakata railway station in Alipurduar district.

Three social organisation – Alipurduar Ganajagaran Mancha, Paschim Banga Vigyan Mancha and Falakata Elixir submitted memorandums to the Falakata Block Development Officer demanding investigation on the recent reckless felling of trees in the school campus today.

The organisations also raised questions on how the forest department permitted for such huge felling of trees in the school campus just for raising fund to construct boundary wall of the school, it is learnt.

“The greenery of the 69 years old Raymond Memorial Higher Secondary School campus used to be a glamour to its students and local people. How can it be destroyed to generate funds for building boundary wall of the school?” said the president of Falakata unit of Alipurduar Ganajagaran Mancha, Prabir Roy Choudhuri.

“We demand the administration to investigate the matter. The forest department’s permission should also be scrutinized,” added Mr Roy Choudhuri.

It may be recalled here that the Raymond Memorial Higher Secondary School authority decided to chop off 257 trees in its campus to generate funds to construct the school boundary wall.

They even got necessary permission from the forest department. The school is situated under the jurisdction of the Jaldapara Nation Park Authority and the DFO of the National Park was not available to comment on the matter.

“According to forest acts in some of the cases we grant permission to cut down trees based on specific applications by the owners of the trees. At present we don’t know what exactly happened in Raymond Memorial Higher Secondary School campus. We will look into the matter if we receive any complaints regarding the matter,” said the additional Wild Life Warden, Jaldapara National Park, Bimal Debnath.

“We could not go through the complaint submitted to me till now. I will take proper steps after reading the complaint,” said the Falakata Block Development Officer, Smita Subba.