Do not cut trees. It’s not just bad for the environment, but also bad for you. In a first of its kind judgment, a magistrate court in the Pune Municipal Corporation sentenced five people to one month’s simple imprisonment for chopping trees. The court also slapped a fine penalty of Rs 5,000 on each for the illegal hacking.

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The office bearers of Deshnam Gosavi Trust in Somvar Peth axed five big trees on the premises of the trust office on September 12, 2013. A resident of the area, Vijay Gosavi, informed the PMC’s garden department of the incident.

Garden department supervisor, Rajesh Chive, conducted the panchnama and filed a case against five trustees. The convicts include Prahlad Bharati, Suresh Gosavi, Avinash Gosavi, Ramdaji Gosavi and Subhadra Gosavi.

Chive said, “After receiving the call, I rushed to the spot and found that the accused had axed the healthy trees illegally. There was absolutely no need to cut those trees. The offenders were not able to respond to the notice sent by the garden department. After that, we registered a criminal case.”

One of the witnesses, Nandkumar Gosavi, said, “After noticing the trees getting hacked, Vijay Gosavi immediately rang up the civic authorities and the officials arrived at the spot soon after. I am satisfied that our role in this case helped the court deliver this landmark judgment.”