Nagpur: Maharashtra’s forests are facing an alarming assault, with rampant illegal tree felling stripping away lakhs of trees despite the presence of forest laws and enforcement machinery. Official data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act reveals that 3.46 lakh trees were illegally felled in forest areas across the State between 2021 and 2025, exposing glaring failures in protecting one of Maharashtra’s most valuable natural assets.
The information, provided by the Forest Department to Nagpur-based RTI activist Abhay Kolarkar, shows that 1.28 lakh of the illegally felled trees were teak, one of the country’s most commercially valuable species. The widespread destruction caused the State an estimated financial loss of Rs 31.22 crore, including Rs 22.57 crore attributable to illegal teak felling alone.
The figures paint a disturbing picture of unchecked forest crime. Even in 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic had curtailed most economic activities, Maharashtra recorded the highest illegal tree felling in the five-year period, with 81,086 trees cut, including 31,310 teak trees. The estimated loss that year stood at Rs 6.80 crore, of which Rs 4.88 crore resulted from teak smuggling.
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The menace has continued unabated. During the first three months of 2026 alone, forest officials recorded 17,114 illegally felled trees, including 5,774 teak trees, causing an estimated loss of Rs 1.62 crore, with teak accounting for Rs 1.09 crore.
Among the districts, Gadchiroli emerged as the worst affected, reporting 3,372 illegally felled trees in the January-March 2026 period. Thane followed with 2,756 trees, while Nagpur ranked third with 2,647 trees, indicating that illegal logging remains widespread across both tribal and urban forest divisions.
Ironically, while illegal felling continues on a massive scale, the Forest Department has simultaneously cleared an unprecedented number of legal tree-cutting proposals. RTI records show that between 2021 and 2025, the department approved 45,803 proposals, permitting the felling of 47.14 lakh trees, including 33.63 lakh teak trees. In just the first quarter of 2026, another 6,336 proposals were sanctioned, allowing the cutting of 8.38 lakh trees, of which 3.05 lakh were teak.
The simultaneous surge in illegal logging and large-scale official permissions has intensified concerns over the shrinking forest landscape. Vast stretches of forest land continue to face diversion for highways, mining projects, public infrastructure and other development works, fuelling criticism that ecological safeguards are steadily being weakened in the name of development.
These concerns are reinforced by the India State of Forest Report, which recorded a 54.5-square-kilometre decline in Maharashtra’s forest cover over recent assessment cycles, signalling that the State’s green wealth continues to erode despite repeated conservation claims.
The government’s response has also come under scrutiny. Although Maharashtra had proposed a 50-fold increase in penalties for illegal tree felling—from Rs 1,000 to Rs 50,000—through amendments to the Maharashtra Felling of Trees (Regulation) Act, 1964, the legislation was withdrawn in July 2025 following criticism from environmentalists and legislators.
The RTI findings raise uncomfortable questions about the effectiveness of forest protection mechanisms. With lakhs of trees disappearing illegally, crores of rupees lost, and forest cover continuing to shrink, environmentalists argue that stronger enforcement, faster prosecution of timber mafias and greater accountability within the forest administration have become urgent necessities before irreversible ecological damage is inflicted on Maharashtra’s forests.
