Tehran Municipality has vowed to pursue the illegal cutting of 14 trees in Sa’adabad Palace (known as Sa’adabad Complex after the 1979 revolution) in northern Tehran, and bring the culprits to justice.
Speaking to Mehr News Agency, Ali Muhammad Mokhtari, director of the Tehran Green Spaces Office at TM, said, “Managers of the complex are supposed to replant an area twice the size of the deforested section.”
According to the official, the trees were cut down to make space for the construction of an art gallery and restaurant.
“We noticed the cleared space during one of our regular inspections of the site,” Mokhtari said. “Logging trees without permission is a violation of law and we have already begun legal proceedings.”
The palace complex is located in Tehran’s upscale Shemiran district. It was built in the 19th century and inhabited by Qajar monarchs before being expanded by the Pahlavi dynasty in the 1920s.
After the Islamic Revolution the complex was turned into a museum.
