TEHRAN, Iran – Back in 2006, some 162 members of Iran Majlis (parliament) wrote a letter to then Speaker, Gholamali Haddad-Adel, demanding an investigation into the ownership of the Qolhak Garden. The results revealed that the garden in fact belongs to the Iranian government.The garden with an area of 200,000 square meters was first leased to the British Embassy by Mohammad Shah Qajar in 1872 as the summer residence of the then British ambassador. Although the lease contract expired under Reza Shah Pahlavi, the complex has remained in the possession of the embassy.
For some reason or another, the Iranian government decided to enact that if someone intentionally fells a tree, they will be sentenced to paying a fine, planting a tree, and imprisonment.- Based on this law, a Tehran municipality official has been fined the British Embassy with an amount of USD 1.2 million for repeatedly felling trees at the north Tehran garden currently in its possession.
- Ali-Mohammad Mokhtari, managing director of Parks and Green Spaces Organization, said on Tuesday that the Article 7 Commission of Tehran Islamic City Council, had tripled the fine of the British as they had repeated their offense.
The municipal official added that the embassy staff had fell another 30 tress in addition to the initial 310 trees. Mokhtari said that the embassy staff had tried to cover up their crime by transferring some of the tree trunks out of the garden. Qolhak Garden is located in a namesake neighbourhood in north Tehran.
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