During the first unscheduled inspection of the Chornobyl zone, a raid team found more than 500 stumps of cut trees and plowing of land for agricultural work in the radiation and ecological biosphere reserve.
The group consisted of environmental inspectors and employees of the state-owned enterprise Forests of Ukraine, the press service of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources reports on Facebook.
It is noted that the inspection was carried out within the framework of the activities of the Interagency Working Group established on behalf of the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Streltsov at the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management.
"First of all, illegal felling was detected – more than 500 stumps of cut trees in total. There are no sign of removal and control on the stumps and the actual products of the cut trees on the spot. The State Ecoinspection calculated the amount of damage and sent the materials to law enforcement agencies," the ecoinspectors said.
Also, during the inspection, plowing of land for cultivation, haying and cultivation of agricultural crops was discovered. The management of the Chernobyl reserve was issued an order to eliminate violations.
The press service said that at the end of 2023, illegal logging and attempts to export wood without appropriate documents outside the zone were discovered on the territory of the Chernobyl reserve. A criminal case has been opened for this offense. This became a prerequisite for the creation of the Interdepartmental Working Group.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that 32 mobile raid teams have been set up in the Chornobyl exclusion zone to detect violations of environmental legislation, including hunting, felling, plowing land for agricultural purposes, fishing, etc.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office has achieved certain results in the investigation of the felling of more than 200 centuries-old oaks in the grove of the Chornobyl Reserve.
