A businessman from Syktyvkar filed six reports with the police against eco-activists defending a forest in Pychim. He accused them of attacking his employee and said that they were preventing him from building a recreation center. The Yurgan TV Channel reported this.
Businessman Vyacheslav Kachmazov appealed to the police with a demand to find those who beat his employee and threatened to burn construction equipment. The eco-activists protecting the forest in Pychim are allegedly preventing the businessman from building a recreation center with an artificial reservoir and quarry arrangement there.
According to the activists, Vyacheslav Kachmazov is trying to cut down the forest for the sake of the Pearl of Pychim Recreation Center and the road to it. Local residents are opposing this. Berries and mushrooms, which the locals collect for sale, grow in those forests. This is the only source of income for many of them.
In 2021, citizens of the Komi Republic collected more than 1.6 thousand signatures under an appeal to Vladimir Uyba, the head of the region. They asked to stop logging for sand extraction in Syktyvdinsky District. Then, Uyba supported the residents and prohibited the sand quarry development for sand extraction.
Residents of Yazel and Pychim rallied to local forests’ defense again in 2022. For the first time, they stopped the logging by coming out with banners on July 3. For the second time, on July 9, there was an attempt to cut down the forest at night, but the activists prevented it. They called the police and Emergencies Ministry. Traffic police officers found out there that one employee did not have a driver's license, and took him to the department. Emergencies Ministry did not come to the call. Despite this, the workers did not cut down the trees.