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The Central Regional Minister Hon. Samuel Sarpong has blamed the �no show deer catch� of this year's aboakyire festival on the massive deforestation going on in the central region. He claims the situation is very worrying and that if proper measures are not put in place, the festival will be no more. Speaking to Hello FM's King Edward this morning, the Central Regional Minister noted that, the region has a strong forest belt and that it was very easy for the groups to catch the deer but this time round the forest has been encroached upon by some unauthorized people and they are gradually destroying the forest belt. �It is rather unfortunate that a festival of such nature could not be celebrated due to somebody's mismanagement and if proper measures are not put in place, the festival will lose its relevance� You know, the animals comes into the forest belt to feed during the rainy season thus enable the various Asafo groups to have a bounty catch for the celebration of the Aboakyire festival; therefore for them not to be able to catch even a baby deer should tell you how serious the forest belt is razed down�, he explained. As a minister, he said he is going to ensure that the laws which are made to protect the forest belt is vehemently protected to avoid further encroachment by unauthorized persons. �that notwithstanding, I sympathize with the chiefs and people of Winneba and assure them of my fullest support of whatever decision they take with respect to the celebration of the festival...� he added.