10 Shade Trees Felled, Mayor Farhan Seals Padel Facility
The owner of a sports facility and cafe located at the intersection of Jalan LLRE Martadinata and Jalan Cihapit, Bandung, faces potential criminal sanctions after being found to have felled ten trees on the pavement without official permission. This discovery was made during a sudden inspection conducted by Bandung Mayor Farhan on Friday (31/7). Consequently, the Bandung City Government immediately sealed the padel facility and cafe suspected of being behind the tree removal.
During the inspection, Farhan discovered at least ten city shade trees on the pavement in front of the padel court area had been cut down to ground level. The finding provoked immediate anger from the Mayor. Without delay, the Municipal Police (Satpol PP) installed yellow sealing tape at the site.
“The Governor has already issued a moratorium. Therefore, I will escalate this matter directly to the Governor so that we can pursue criminal prosecution, as this has the potential to be a significant legal violation,” stated Farhan, as reported by Detik Jabar.
Farhan emphasised that unauthorised tree felling cannot be tolerated and will be handled through criminal proceedings. “There are 10 trees here. We are sealing the site immediately, even though this incident occurred some time ago,” said Farhan.
Farhan noted that, in addition to violating the government’s existing tree-cutting moratorium, the action also allegedly breaches environmental protection regulations. Therefore, the case is deemed worthy of being processed at the provincial level and reported to environmental law enforcement.
“We have issued a circular regarding the moratorium on tree cutting. This means two regulations have been violated. This is also considered a violation of environmental regulations, so we can report this to the Ministry’s Environmental Law Enforcement (Gakkum) unit,” he explained.
At the sealing site, Farhan also remarked that there appeared to be an element of excessive boldness or arrogance on the part of those responsible for the felling. He suspected the perpetrators felt they possessed strong backing, which emboldened them to cut down shade trees in a public space.
“We will pursue criminal charges first for those responsible, because this was indiscriminate cutting done with undue boldness. Those who did this must feel they have strong backing. This cannot stand; I will bring this to the Governor and to Environmental Law Enforcement,” concluded Farman.