Gurgaon: Over 10 fully grown trees were cut down in Palam Vihar’s F Block green belt and along the 24-metre road. The forest department registered a second Forest Offence Report (FOR) on Sunday after fresh cutting was reported in broad daylight.Several residents claimed the same individuals who had cut some trees on April 24 — leading to the first FOR — were responsible for felling the trees on Sunday as well.Lajpat Gupta, one of the complainants, told TOI that the violations continued openly despite prior complaints.“All these violations are happening in broad daylight. These people came on April 24 and again on Sunday. MCG had recently marked these trees with paint. They were all fully grown,” Gupta said.MCG paints the trunk of those trees which are part of recognised public green infrastructure, making the gravity of the actions even more serious.Some residents on Sunday submitted a formal complaint to the SHO of the Palam Vihar police station, seeking registration of an FIR against “unknown culprits” for repeated tree felling in the F-2488 green belt, adjacent green belt and along the 24-metre road.In the complaint, the locals said they were also threatened by the accused individuals when they objected to the tree felling. They also alleged that the felled tree trunks were piled up in the same area, blocking road access for many. Police received the complaint under diary number 793 for enquiry.Forest department officials told TOI that the second FOR was issued on Sunday following fresh violations. The latest case, dated May 3, 2026, was registered under Section 4 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900, for the F Block Palam Vihar site. This follows an earlier FOR dated April 29, indicating successive forest department action over repeated cutting in the same area. Forest officials said, “The second FOR documented fresh damage on Sunday and included site details, species affected and GPS coordinates.”The case comes amid a statewide legal restraint imposed by the Punjab and Haryana high court on April 1, where the bench led by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu prohibited cutting of any tree in Haryana without prior permission.While hearing the proposed felling of around 5,000 trees for the Zirakpur-Panchkula bypass, the court noted Haryana’s forest cover was only 3.6% and warned of an “impending ecological catastrophe.”
