China's State Forestry Administration (SFA) has blasted local authorities and private companies for flaunting the law by chopping down forests to make way for new transport links.

The Communications Bureau of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has been found to have illegally expropriated 356.14 hectares of forest and felled 6,170 cubic meters of trees to build a freeway.

The incident tops the ten most severe local government transgressions discovered by the administration in an inspection of forest land use in 203 counties since 2005, SFA spokesman Song Qingyao told a regular press conference on Wednesday.

The next on the list was an incident involving the Forestry Bureau of Yuexi County of Anhui Province which connived with the province's Liuqian Highway Company by privately granting the latter a felling license which led to the illegal expropriation of 120.68 hectares of forest and the loss of 4,727.2 cubic meters of trees.

Another five local government departments who were found to have ignored regulations are the Zhejiang-Jiangxi electrified railway transformation commanding center, the Agricultural Bureau of the Dahinggan Mountain region in the northeast, the Pingxiang Road Bureau of Jiangxi Province, the Baise Road Bureau of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the Dacheng Railway Expansion Commanding Center of Sichuan Province.

These departments were responsible for the loss of 635.55 hectares of forest, 86 percent of the total area of forest illegally confiscated for the construction of railways, roads, hydropower stations and transmission lines.

The remaining three cases involved 22 mines of Fengcheng City of Liaoning Province, the Dashawan Hydropower Station Development Company of Tibetan Autonomous County of Muli in Sichuan Province and five limestone factories of Fenyi County in Jiangxi Province.

"The inspection has unveiled many severe problems that must not be ignored," Cao said.

"Such behavior reflects a dangerous attitude held by some government departments who only look to immediate interests and deprive the future generation of benefits," Cao said.

He said the administration had notified the relevant provincial governments and urged them to dole out the necessary punishments.

"Forestry authorities at various levels should not discard their duties but rather strengthen the management and supervision of forest land," Cao said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2007)