Shimla, June 29 -- Dismissing claims of illegal felling HP State Forest Development Corporation Limited vice chairman Kehar Singh Khachi, while addressing media in Mandi on Saturday, said, "Floating logs were waste material."

Kachi, while interacting with the media person on Saturday said, "The videos on social media showing logs floating in the river after cloudburst in Kullu on June 25 are being widely shared to create confusion regarding the disaster and the forest department is being accused of negligence. This is far from reality."

He said, "Due to cloudburst, forest land has suffered a lot of damage, the wood that has come floating in the swelling water bodies is waste wood lying on the forest land that was not removed. These wast...