Tree felling: Landowners ready to plant 1,000 grown trees

After relentless protests and complaints, an agreement has been reached between landowners and Tejasvi Minhas and other environmentalists over cutting of trees on Jalandhar Cantt Bypass Road.

Around 100 trees were felled illegally on September 28 and 29 on the road, which had infuriated activists, who wrote to the CM. Residents also held a protest at the site.

As per agreement, 1,000 fully grown trees of minimum 8-10 ft height will be planted at the site and the nearby areas and in a radius of 5 km.

This will cover Kot Kalan, Khusropur, Sofi Pind and Kukkar Pind. The trees will be provided free of cost by landowners.

Trees like arjun, moringa, neem, talhi, amaltas, peepal will be planted and no ornamental plants be used. The full maintenance of the trees for one year shall be done by the landowners.

Maintenance shall include regular watering, de-weeding, providing support, cutting/setting any broken branches, etc and replacement of trees if it dies. The procurement and plantation of most tress shall be done around February-March next year.

With these demands met, environmentalists and villagers of the nearby areas have agreed that no protest will be held and no complaints be filed. All parties will ensure the uplift and preservation of environment.

Activists said 50 grown trees have already been planted at the site, which shall be protected by a tree guard soon.

Environmentalist Minhas, who first took up the issue of the felling of 100 trees illegally by a mall owner, said, “I appreciate the gesture by the landowners to compensate for the felled trees. Punjab has the lowest tree cover in the country and the need of the hour is to preserve these and increase the green cover. I hope that these 1,000 trees shall help improve our environment and air quality. We’ll keep protesting against any illegal cutting of trees and and seek everyone’s help in improving our environment”.

The landowners said. “We’re committed to the preservation of environment around our projects and hope to plant and maintain a lot more trees other than these 1,000. We shall support every endeavour to make our city greener.”

The replantation work will be overseen by the environmentalists and residents of the nearby areas. The areas for plantation shall be identified around the site and saplings shall be planted early next year.

Trees to be supplied by nursery

The 1,000 trees to be replanted will be sourced from the Ajanta Nursery in Malerkotla which is a specialist for it. Activists said the trees will be sourced between February and March from the nursery where the trees are kept for sale