Residents of Kavkazskie Mineralnye Vody demand to stop cutting trees on Mount Mashuk

Representatives of the public ecological organization "Solnechny Patrul" (Solar Patrol) brought to the Essentuki office of Alexander Khloponin, the Plenipotentiary Envoy of the President to the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), an open letter of residents of the region named Kavkazskie Mineralnye Vody (Caucasian Mineral Waters) demanding to stop cutting trees on Mount Mashuk. The similar letters were sent to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Mikhail Parshin, the initiator of the action, the coordinator of the "Solnechny Patrol", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that in total, 4583 persons signed the letter.

According to Mikhail Parshin, in the collective appeal, sent on January 20, the citizens demand to stop construction works on the western slope of Mount Mashuk, located on the second mountain-sanitary protection zone.

"We ask to send to the specially protected ecological and resort region of Kavkazskie Mineralnye Vody a commission, consisting of local and independent experts in the field of ecology, hydrogeology, and balneology, for a thorough audit of the city administrations and environment protection agencies. Facts of flagrant interference in the nature of the region of Kavkazskie Mineralnye Vody became widespread in modern life of the region," the protesters stated.

According to official documents, which the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent read, in September 2006, Pavel Mineev, the acting head of the administration of Pyatigorsk, sent to the government of the Stavropol Territory a request to transfer the land area of 37.3 hectares on the western slope of Mount Mashuk from the forest land fund to the settlement land fund.

In December 2006, by the order of Pavel Mineev, the land plot was leased to the LLC (Limited Liability Company) "Kavminekotsentr", and, in a week, the land plot was sold to that company. In March 2011, the "Kavminekotsentr" sold part of the land plot of 5.3 hectares to the LLC "Kavzhilstroi" for construction of cottage holiday hotels.

According to Mikhail Parshin, at present, on Mount Mashuk, walnut trees on an area of about 5 hectares are being actively cut down.

Cutting down of greenery on Mount Mashuk is conducted lawfully, since the mentioned land plot is owned by the LLC "Kavzhilstroi" on the right of private property. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" by Dmitry Markaryan, the head of the Legal Department of the administration of the resort town.

Valery Arustamov, the deputy of the Pyatigorsk State Duma, the member of the Public Council under the Plenipotentiary Envoy of the President to the NCFD, held another position. He is convinced that the land plot on Mount Mashuk can be returned to the public ownership by political will and increased public resonance.

According to Gaspar Srabionyan, the Pyatigorsk architect, felling of forest on slopes of Mount Mashuk and construction of a large number of buildings can lead to irreversible changes "in the underlying aquifer profile (mineral waters are formed there)."

According to Alexander Panin, the head of the Division "Geological Information and Cartography" of the Stavropol State University (SSU), one of the major threats to the development prospects of the tourism cluster is namely the destruction of specially protected natural areas.