Axing of trees for road project intensified

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 16

Axing of trees has been intensified for the construction of slip roads under the elevated road project on Ferozepur Road. Manny trees have been axed near Verka Milk Plant, outside Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, near Durga Mata Mandir and other points on Ferozepur Road in the past one month.

Activists associated with the environment cause in the city are a disappointed lot. They claimed no major efforts had been made to protect a majority of big trees by using machines and taking help of experts.

An activist, Gurpal Singh Grewal, said a large number of parrots and birds have not been seen since the old trees were uprooted in the green belt area along the flower market near Durga Mata Mandir. “Many birds had made their nests on these trees. Every morning and evening, I witnessed birds flying in large groups. Now, I miss that sight. These trees could have been saved if the government had shown some seriousness. I felt that the authorities concerned have done just a formality by shifting a few trees but we don’t know what would be the survival rate of these trees,” he said.

Last year, a number of residents along with city-based NGOs had staged protests against the proposed axing of around 2,000 trees. The people gathered along Ferozepur Road to mark their protest. A meeting of the members of civic society and officials of the National Highways Authority of India and the Forest Department was also held to discuss ways to save the trees.

A member of a city-based NGO said: “The officials concerned had assured us that they would tie up with a private firm for transplantation of the trees which could be saved. Now, a manual exercise is being carried out to transplant small trees as huge funds are needed to hire a company for tree translocation. We are unhappy as our elected representatives had not made any concrete efforts to protect the green cover of our city when the design for the elevated road project was being prepared.”

Meanwhile, workers were deployed for shifting trees from Ferozepur Road to an area along Sidhwan Canal. A worker said: “We have shifted around 60 trees in the past four days. We shift them with proper care.”

The NHAI Project Director, BS Chauhan, said they had axed a few trees near Durga Mata Mandir and other points so far. The other trees, which were marked red, would be axed for the construction of slip roads.