- (1.) COURTS below concurrently found petitioners and another guilty of the offence under section 27 (1) (g) of the Kerala Forest Act, and sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months and to pay a fine of Rs.300 with a default sentence. On 18.5.1984, P.Ws. 1, 2 and other Forest Officials found petitioners moving pieces of lead tree in the reserved forests. They were removing it out of the forest. This was seized under Exhibit P.1. Acting on the evidence of P.Ws.1 and 2 COURTS below found the charge.
(2.) LEARNED counsel submitted that evidence does not establish the charge, and that the evidence is not reliable either. The Courts on facts have considered this aspect and found that there was reliable evidence to establish the change. I am in agreement with the view taken by the Courts below. Then it was contended that a lenient sentence may be imposed, stating that the value of the timber is not considerable. I have difficulty in agreeing with the submission. It is not the value of the article involved, but the nature of the offence that should be considered. The offence, is a serious one, indeed. Thomas Woffe said: 'Some things will never change. The voice of forest water in the night, a woman's daughter in the dark, the clean hard cattle of ravel delicate web of children's voices in bright air - the glitter of moonlight on roughered water, the glory of stars. All things belonging to the earth will never change-the leaf - the blade, the flower - the wind that cries and shape and weaken again, the trees whose arms clash and tremble in the dark'. But, many things have changed. The glitter of sunlight is shrouded in industrial smogs, the leaves, the blades and grass and their eternal fragrance go into memories of greater years. The trees are wantenly destroyed. The sweet air of dawn has been conquered by industrial fumes. The streams die bushing their nipples of laughter for ever and thinning into a trickle.
(3.) THE ancients had greater awareness of nature and its role in human life. THE epics a mythole-gies- referred to earth and nature as Godness. THE Greeks decified nature and worshipped. Industrial pollution and destruction of nature upsetting zeological balance have turned to be frightening mesance. Industrial effluents and fumes have pelluted air. THE high areas of the world have become global dumping grounds. An industrial society progressing by leaps and bounds to material wealth has mindlessly hurt environment almost to a point of no return. It has to be restored to its pristine gurily, if life on the planet should prevail.;