-
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Three young men in Said Sadiq were arrested on Monday after cutting down a tree for a TikTok video, forest police told Rudaw.
“Said Sadiq’s forest police arrested three young men on a judicial order for cutting down trees and disrespecting nature, and publishing the video for the public,” Hemn Kamarkhan, spokesperson for Sulaimani’s forest police directorate told Rudaw.
“The TikTok video they have published shows the guys are cutting down the tree for fun,” added the spokesperson.
The video, published to TikTok, shows two young men carrying a sack, walking towards the tree. One of them then cuts it down to continue walking, with a third person seen in the background.
Director of Said Sadiq forest police, Lit. Col. Adil Jalal told Rudaw English that the defendants won't be formally charged until May 30.
The spokesperson called on citizens to refrain from harming the environment for publicity.
“We will not accept this and there will be legal consequences for anyone who disrespects nature.”
According to the board of Environmental Protection and Improvement of the Kurdistan Region, cutting down or rooting out trees and saplings, plants and grass on public property is punishable with a jail sentence and fines between 150,000 to 200 million Iraqi dinars.
People have been arrested across the Kurdistan Region for committing such offences. A man in Duhok province was arrested by Peshmerga forces in March for cutting down 1,000 oak trees, including some over 100 years old.
Villagers in Halabja’s Khurmal sub-district cut down a nearly 100-year-old mulberry tree in the grounds of a mosque in January, claiming it blocked the mosque’s water source. Khurmal forest police filed a legal complaint, saying that “there could have been other solutions.”
Thousands of oak trees are cut and burned each year in the mountains of Barzinja, east of the city of Sulaimani, for the illegal charcoal trade.
According to Erbil’s forest police, 546 people were arrested for cutting or burning trees in 2020 in Erbil alone, and nearly 32.5 square kilometers (32,413 dunams) of land were burned.
Additional reporting by Horvan Rafaat.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment