Govt ready for tree felling, but not for afforestation

Mohit Khanna

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 23

The government is all set to axe thousands of trees for widening the Chandigarh-Ludhiana road, but the Forest Department has no land available for compensatory afforestation.

Replying to a query, Forest and Labour Minister Chunni Lal Bhagat said efforts were on to buy land for afforestation. “We are identifying land where plantation could be done,” said the minister who was here to lay the foundation stone of Dr BR Ambedkar Skill Development Centre.

The Centre had last week approved highway projects between Chandigarh and Ludhiana.

The 76-km highway stretch will be widened at a cost of Rs2,069.70 crore. Sources in the Forest Department said over 50,000 trees would be axed for the project.

The minister said the process was on to vacate the forestland encroached upon by a dera.

“We are facing a tough challenge as these deras move the court and manage to get a stay on land. The department has recently won some cases. Encroachments in this area will also be removed soon,” he said.

Meanwhile, environmentalists have raised concern over the felling of trees along the stretch.

Brij Bhushan Goyal, organising secretary, Mahatma Gandhi Peace Mission, alleged: “The government is ruining the eco system of the state in the name of development. As many as 3.54 lakh trees were axed in 2009 and 713.911 hectares of forestland was diverted for the widening of National Highway-1 from Rajpura to Jalandhar. The department is reluctant to give record as to where the compensatory afforestation was done.”

Watavaran Sambhal Society founders Jagjit Singh Mann and Brij Bhushan Goyal said they were coordinating with other environmentalists and would ask the government to first purchase land for afforestation.