Development projects take toll on green cover

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 4

Scores of full grown trees along the boundary wall of the historic Company Bagh on the Mall Road were axed today to pave way for the upcoming BRTS (Bus Rapid Transport System).

Around 800 trees have been marked for facilitating the BRTS project. This fact came to light recently during a presentation on the proposed project.

Environmentalists and NGOs of Amritsar had staged protest, but in spite of oral assurances, it elicited no positive response and the chopping of trees couldn’t be stopped.

The centuries-old trees such as banyan, pipal, mulberry, jamun and shisham were chopped off and saplings of palm trees are being planted in lieu of those.

In Amritsar, the development projects are taking their toll on the green belt. Taking serious note of the indiscriminate chopping of century-old rare trees in the name of development in Amritsar, Member of Parliament Capt Amarinder Singh moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

During the MC’s general house meeting chaired by Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora in August, a resolution was passed to allow chopping of as many as 368 big trees and 30 small trees located on both sides of the Mecleod Road (from Aerodrome Road to GT Road) to widen it.

Similarly, the Forest Department has allowed the PWD (B&R) to cut 142 trees on the GT Road (from Bhandari Bridge to Guru Nanak Dev University) for the BRTS project.

Ironically, on March 18, 2014, an RTI application was filed in this regard by Parbodh C Bali with the Municipal Corporation, Amritsar, to get information about the total number of trees within the Amritsar city since 2008 with all details.

It was confirmed vide letter No. 15 dated December 31, 2013, that the XEN (Horticulture), Municipal Corporation, Amritsar, has granted an NOC to the Amritsar Improvement Trust to cut off 858 trees from the Circular Road to Kitchlew Road without adopting any procedure or resolution of the house of councillors, which is mandatory.

Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora said parallel plans were there to compensate for the loss and they would plant a large number of saplings in collaboration with the Forest Department.

Sources said there are around 4,500 to 5,000 trees that could be cut for paving the way for various development projects.

As per estimates, more than 2,000 trees and plants must have been damaged while carrying out work on various development projects such as the BRTS, Kitchlew Chowk elevated road or widening of roads on the bypass areas.