On 3 October 2010, police on Sunday around 200 forest activists, including Chairman of Federation of Community Forest Users' Nepal Apsara Chapagain, while they were trying to picket the Department of Forest. The agitators had reached the department as part of a nationwide strike against the government's decision to amend Forest Act-1993 to increase the tax from 15 percent to 50 percent and to scrap the rights of community forests. "The Armed Police Force interfered in our peaceful sit-in and charged batons mercilessly," said Federation's executive officer Suvas Devkota. All the protestors have been kept at Metropolitan Police Sector, Singha Durbar and Kamalpokhari. Devkota said over one dozen Federation members were seriously injured when police baton charged the protestors. "They were even barred from treatment," he said. Federation treasurer Bhaati Pathak said that a proposal regarding amendment of the Act is awaiting the parliament's approval, which, if endorsed, will curtail the rights and privileges of community forests user groups. Government officials say the Act should be amended to control rampant deforestation in Tarai districts and encroachment of forest areas across the country.