10,000 trees may be felled in Gurugram’s Sohna Road area

GURUGRAM: Once again, there can be a scenario in Gurugram when the price of development will be paid by the trees of the Millennium city. There is a possibility that over 10,000 trees may be felled in Gurugram Sohna’s road as the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is all set to begin the works of revamping the infrastructure of the busy route. The revamping of infrastructure at Sohna road is seen as a major step towards developing the Delhi-mumbai corridor.

Sources indicate that the permission of axing the trees have been given by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) with certain riders.

There is, however, no official confirmation of the order by the NHAI officials. It will not be easy for the public agency to go ahead and cut such a large number of trees as certain environmental organisations have warned of going to National Green Tribunal over the matter. Earlier also, the environmental organisations held the unique protest of Chipko movement in order to save 1,300 trees from being cut for the construction of the underpass at the Atul Kataria chowk.

Reports of massive tree felling is not a new phenomenon in Gurugram. It has been officially confirmed that more than 6,000 trees were axed at IFFCO Chowk, Signature Towers and Rajiv Chowk along the National Highway-8 for the construction of underpasses and flyovers. For long, there have been complaints and allegations by the green activists of how various governments in connivance with the green activists and deliberately reduce the green cover fo the Aravallis.

Moreover, the new saplings that are being planted are also dying early due to the lack of maintenance. Haryana forest department which is also involved in the selling of wood and commercial plantation is among the few government departments that are making profits. However, the last commercial plantation was conducted by the department way back in 2010.