APPROXIMATELY 1.67 hectares of forest on the top of Yangtai Mountain was found damaged and replaced with aquilaria saplings about six months ago, however, no one has been blamed for the incident yet.
The forest police bureau said it had started an investigation last week, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
Yangtai Mountain attracts many hikers with its large forests and beautiful scenery. However, a resident surnamed Liang was shocked to find a large number of trees had been cut down when he went hiking on the mountain with his friend last month.
Liang said the trees were replaced with aquilaria saplings.
Liang told the Daily that he saw some people cutting down the trees in 2017 and one of the woodcutters told him that the place would be turned into a garden of aquilaria trees.
A lot of the trunks looked fresh and it was estimated that they were cut not long ago, according to the report, and the aquilaria saplings scattered around the area appeared to be well planned with equal spacing.
According to the owner of a litchi garden nearby, some people planned to plant aquilaria trees there due to their high economic value. The owner said that since the mountaintop area was not located along the main hiking path, only a few people would notice the difference.
The owner also said the new trees were planted by Zhang Guihui, former chairman of the Makan Co. Ltd. of Makan Village. Zhang is also the one who hired people to cut down the original trees, according to the owner.
The vice manager of the company, Zhang Qinghui, said they had also started an investigation into the case as some Makan villagers filed complaints half a year ago.
According to him, several woodcutters who were busted by the village’s security team said Zhang Guihui had paid them to cut down the trees, but since the area did not belong to the village, they left the investigation to the forest branch of the municipal public security bureau.
Zhang Guihui denied that he had cut down any of the trees. He said the woodcutters and some villagers were “setting him up.”