6 more trees felled in Civil Surgeon’s office complex

The remaining six trees on the premises of the office of the Civil Surgeon, Jalandhar, were axed today. There were over 20 trees at the land which will have a Critical Care Unit.

Environment activists and members of the Action Group Against Plastic Pollution (AGAPP) staged a protest on Monday, opposing the felling of trees. The activists had also written to the NGT.

Activist Tejaswi Minhas said, “We filed a case with NGT on Monday and also intimated the contractor. We also called up the DC office, MC office and the forest department. The remaining trees were there till 9 pm last night. But this morning they were felled. If they don’t have environmental clearance, we will file a criminal complaint against them.”

The CS office premises had mango, amaltas, jamun, neem, banyan, farangipani trees which were more than 70 to 80 years old and their cutting began about a week ago, along with the demolition of the CS office.

PWD officials managing the site, could not be contacted despite repeated calls.

It took between six months and a year for the project to receive the go-ahead from employees, who earlier sat on a dharna at the CS office.

A marathon meeting with the administration was held in August-end to finally obtain their approval for the project.

On Monday, NGO AGAPP members Dr Pallavi Khanna, Dr Navneet Bhullar, Dr Pawandeep Singh, Dr Manmehak along with Khalsa College professors and youth leaders gathered on Monday at the site to prevent the felling of the remaining trees.