Fergana official orders unauthorized relocation of 270 trees

In the Fergana region, an official's directive led to the unauthorized relocation of 270 trees. This information was reported by the Ministry of Ecology, Environmental Protection, and Climate Change.

According to the report, the acting deputy mayor of Quvasoy city for construction, communications, communal services, ecology, and landscaping, N.M., ordered the illegal relocation of the trees. The Environmental Control Inspection of the Ministry of Ecology conducted an investigation into the removal of these healthy trees from the "Besholish" stream area in the "Huvaydo" neighborhood of Quvasoy city.

The investigation revealed that despite the presence of valuable multi-year trees on the land, the Quvasoy city mayor approved a decision on January 22, 2025, to register the right to auction off the land plots. The land was divided into two lots and listed in the "Yerelektron" automated information system for the construction of multi-story residential buildings, large universal and specialized stores, supermarkets, and restaurants.

During the approval process, the Quvasoy city ecology department indicated on February 3, 2025, through the "Yerelektron" automated information system, that the project could not be implemented due to the presence of multi-year trees and provided a rejection response.

However, under N.M.'s directive, city beautification department employees used special equipment from February 11-14 to illegally relocate 270 trees (including pine, chestnut, catalpa, Japanese pagoda tree, mulberry, and elm) to 16 different locations. Nine of the trees were damaged and did not survive the relocation process.

Additionally, due to the incorrect decisions and illegal orders by the officials, the relocated trees were planted in areas where they face a high risk of not surviving in the future.

The unauthorized tree relocation caused environmental damage estimated at 1 billion 829 million 437 thousand soums. The collected documents have been sent to the General Prosecutor's Office for legal evaluation and appropriate action.

It is worth noting that earlier, in the city of Kokand, Fergana region, citizens were imprisoned for unjustifiably cutting down a healthy plane tree, causing 117 million soums in damage to the plant world.