Dried up and felled sheesham trees (left) at Litti Chowk, Bhuiyandih, on Monday and the report in The Telegraph on Feb. 1. Picture by Bhola Prasad

The forest department has instituted a probe into indiscriminate dumping of industrial waste and its ill effects on trees in two areas of Jamshedpur, a hazard highlighted once again by the recent visit of an Assembly fact-finding team.

State principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) A.K. Singh has issued a directive to divisional forest officer (DFO) of Seraikela-Kharsawan and Dhalbhum A.T. Mishra, asking him to file a report on the adverse effects of slag dumped at Litti Chowk and Gwala Basti, lined with various trees, including sheesham.

An Assembly subordinate legislation committee led by Hazaribagh MLA Saurabh Narayan Singh visited the steel city on January 29 to study the adverse impact of slag — a hazardous by-product of steel making — that was being dumped in several areas of the city by big and small steel companies, including Tata Steel.

Mishra said they would be visiting the two areas on Tuesday. Both areas are near densely populated localities of Agrico Workers Flats, NML Flats, Bhuiyandih and Nandnagar where slag is being dumped by the steel giant for the last three-four months.

“The principal chief conservator of forest has taken note of the report submitted by the committee and we have been asked to submit a report at the earliest,” he said.

After the Assembly committee articulated their concerns, The Telegraph had published a report on February 1, highlighting the areas where hazardous industrial waste, primarily slag, was being dumped with scant regard for the environment.

Reacting to the report, Tata Steel had said they had bought land in the outskirts of the city to dump the waste in future. “Recently we purchased a land at Galudih in Ghatshila sub-division which is away from human habitation. The construction of a boundary wall has already begun and we hope to complete the process within a month or so and thereafter, all slag would be dumped at that site,” Sanjiv Paul, vice-president (corporate services), Tata Steel, had said.

The forest department probe would look at a number of parameters, given the Assembly committee’s findings that sheesham trees had either been felled or had dried up due to dumping of slag in the two areas.

First, the forest officer would check the legal status of the land to verify whether it was revenue land (in this case Tata leased land) or forest land. “This is the first parameter. We have to check if the land belongs to us,” said the officer.

The probe would take into account the existing number, and type, of trees at the site. It would also verify allegations that indiscriminate dumping had led to trees of the area drying up.

Damage to sheesham, or rose wood, is always a matter of serious concern for the forest department. “Sheesham helps the environment in many different ways,” said department source, “It helps increase rainfall, cools the environment and decreases the ratio of wind evaporation which saves the atmosphere from becoming dry.”