Posts with photos of three private houses are being shared on social networks with comments that they were cut down because of them forest in Stepin lug.
Stepin lug is considered the largest forest in Belgrade, inestimably important, which is expected to receive the status of a protected area as of November 2024. The Institute for Nature Protection proposed that Stepa's lye be in the third level of protection.
According to Article 35 of the Law on Nature Protection, the construction of buildings in areas of the third level of protection is prohibited.
Why is it being delayed?
The members of the Ekomorf association, who reported this construction to the authorities, believe that this is precisely the reason why the protection of Stepa's lug is delayed.
"Despite the fact that Stepa's lye is still not protected, it is in the process of obtaining protection, which means that no logging or construction is allowed there," Nemanja Jovanović, from Ekomorf, told Vreme.
Photo: Marko DragoslavićWhose houses are these?
He says that "the investor of those three houses is not known, there is no construction board on the construction site", and states that "various stories are heard about who did all this. It is strange that we could not get any information in the municipality".
He states that these are parcels number 1374/2 and 1374/4, municipality of Voždovac, cadastral parcel Kumodraž.
According to the real estate cadastre database, the owners of the plots are brothers Petrović, Vladan and Bojan.
Orchard in weeds
Vladan Petrović told N1 that both plots were bought by his family a few years ago from a private owner. According to the cadastre, it is a building plot and a third-class orchard.
"It was an orchard that was overgrown with weeds, old and not used at all. There is no forest, nor did I cut down any forest. Every expert can confirm that. I literally cut down the vegetation," Vladan Petrović told the N1 portal.
He states that all three objects have house numbers. "The cadastre would not have given me house numbers and written all the solutions if it wasn't about urban construction land or if it was, as they say, eco-land or if it was a forest. I simply wouldn't have any house number if that was the case," he adds.
He claims that the plots owned by his family do not belong to the protection area. "Then there wouldn't be a city construction site, we wouldn't have numbers for residential buildings," he adds.
Authorities have been notified.
Nemanja Jovanović says that the houses sprung up "incredibly quickly, in three months. They are two-storey, and only the roof is missing. The work was done over the holidays, in the coldest weather."
Photo: Marko DragoslavićWhat are houses doing in the forest?
The Ekomorf Association has sent letters about this to the Institute for Nature Protection, the Construction Inspection, the Municipal Inspection, as well as Srbijašum, which officially manages Stepa's lye.
Requirements
They demand that, based on the current laws, "illegal construction should be stopped, the perpetrator should be punished, the buildings should be demolished, and the forest should be brought back to its original state by planting."
Ekomorph is an ecological association that deals with environmental protection and fights against every kind of destruction of nature, starting from wild construction, harmful urbanization, through illegal cutting of trees, endangering the habitats of animals, all the way to wild landfills and other violent actions towards nature.
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