Indore: Rare Khorasani tamarind trees of African origin and found in Dhar and Mandav areas of Indore, Madhya Pradesh are being clandestinely smuggled to Telangana capital Hyderabad, sources said on Thursday. The administration has ordered an inquiry into the matter and has stopped the felling of trees. An ETV Bharat investigation has revealed that the rare trees are being transported to Hyderabad by one VV Ramadugu, who runs a nursery named 'Unique Tree', located in Rangareddy district of Telangana.
Sources said that the said nursery has been active in the field of commercial and residential landscaping. About one and a half years ago, the nursery operators had cut eight trees planted on private land in Mandav through the Mandav SDO forest at the local level. Villagers alleged that instead of eight trees, the agency cut or uprooted 14 trees from here and shifted them to the nursery located in Hyderabad.
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They said that on the transit permission of the Forest Department, not only in Mandav, the trees of the nearby village Jirapura, Dharmapuri and some areas adjacent to Dhar have already been uprooted and taken away secretly. The forest department has neither informed the district administration nor other officials about the matter in Mandav, the locals alleged.
They said that the matter has been brought to the notice of the district administration including Dhar collector and SDM Roshni Patidar. The villagers alleged that the forest department officials have given permission to cut trees and were hand in glove with the smuggler. As for the nursery owner VV Ramadugu, he said that he had obtained permission for tree felling through Collector Dhar.
The tree Adansonia digitata or African Baobab is a rare tree with African and South Arabian origin, whose history is 2000 years old. It is said that the laborers who were brought here from Africa via Iran to Ranchi and Indore used its fruit to avoid dehydration as they had to face severe heat. The fruit of Khurasani tamarind contains calcium and other elements, due to which it has medicinal importance.
