Gangotri set to witness felling of deodar trees

Jotirmay Thapliyal

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 28

Gangotri in Uttarkashi district is all set to witness large-scale felling of trees for the widening of the national highway. Tree felling in the place where the Bhagirathi (Ganga) originates will defeat the objective of the ambitious Namami Gange project that targets afforestation of 30,000 hectares.

After gruelling summers when Uttarakhand lost enormous wealth due to forest fires, the state authorities are now set to fell thousands of deodar trees in the Gangotri-Harsil stretch of Gangotri forests in Uttarkashi district. These trees will be felled for the widening of the Gangotri national highway. Environmentalist Suresh Bhai says trees alongside the Ganga play an important role in maintaining its flow and purity. He questions the decision of the forest authorities to fell deodar trees. He says a large number of trees in the Gangotri-Harsil stretch are young and green.

Tree felling could lead to more landslides in the region, he adds.

The proposed felling of trees in the Harshil region is also a reminder of the black days of 90s when thousands of deodar tress were axed in the region. This led to mass agitation by women from Harshil, Mukwa and adjoining villages. The villagers had then tied sacred threads around trees as raksha sutras, pledging to save trees in the environmentally fragile region.

Significantly, a Wildlife Institute of India’s report “River Habitat Survey: Vegetation, Birds and Landscape Change in Upper Ganges, Uttarakhand”, had revealed that the upper Ganga river basin had already lost almost 625 sq km forest cover in the past two decades and had attributed anthropogenic pressure like human activity as the major cause of decline in the forest cover.

Interestingly, afforestration along the banks of the Ganga was an important component of the Namami Gange project, which aimed at cleaning and protecting the holy river. Tree felling will defeat the purpose.