Ranchi, Aug. 11: The morning walkers and the residents of Morhabadi area might continue their protests against the sports department?s decision to cut trees at the Birsa Munda Stadium, but the state does not have any law to stop the depletion of foliage.

Protesting against the department?s decision to cut trees to make way for the revamping of the stadium, the protesters stood in front of the gates of the arena for the second day today.

The ruling party MLA from Ranchi, C.P. Singh, advocated that an act should be framed in such a way that neither developmental work gets hampered nor ecological balance gets upset. He has also joined the agitation against the sports department.

The neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh have implemented the Tree Protection Act, but, Jharkhand, like Bihar, is yet to adopt the act, which makes it mandatory to seek permission and state reasons before cutting trees.

According to the existing rules, a government agency will have to seek clearance from the forest department before starting a project in lands falling under the definition of a forest.

But the rule does not extend to private forests, which could be felled for any purpose. However, a private party has to seek permission for the transportation of forest logs.

Forests department sources said that when Bihar and Jharkhand were united, the department had formulated rules, similar to the Trees Protection Act of Uttar Pradesh. ?But even before the rules could be approved by the Cabinet or could be tabled in the Assembly, vested interests vanquished them,? sources informed.

Principal chief conservator of forests J.L. Shrivastava said that no plans to draft an act, similar to the Trees Protection Act, was in the pipeline. Experiences from Bihar were bitter enough to discourage the department from framing such rules.

Forests department sources rued that the lack of willpower on the part of the political leaders, who remain indifferent to such causes, is the cause for the lack of any measures to curtail felling.