Overview

• Forest and revenue teams supported by police have cut down more than 3,659 fruit-bearing trees in Chaithla, Rohru and Kotgarh since July 12
• A division bench of Justices Vivek Singh Thakur and Bipin C Negi reprimanded the state for selective enforcement and ordered a comprehensive status report for all forest divisions
• Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu says the government will seek time to auction the produce and is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court
• Education Minister Rohit Thakur and local representatives have called for relief measures to protect farmers with fewer than five bighas of encroached land
• The Apple Farmers’ Federation of India and other growers’ bodies have announced a rally at the Shimla Secretariat on July 29 to protest the mid-season felling