Township along Delhi-Mumbai corridor to wipe out forest
About 10,000 trees spread over 27 acres in Gulistapur are likely to be cut; forest department seeks alternative land
A 750-acre township proposed along the DelhiMumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project will be developed at the cost of around 27 acres of forest land in Greater Noida.
According to officials, the natural forest in Greater Noida’s Gulistapur area which falls along the proposed DMIC rail track will be developed as a city. About 10, 000 trees are expected to be felled for the project which aims to generate employment for more than 12 lakh people.
Of ficials of the Indian Railways, UP forest department and DMIC Trust have already discussed the issue of clearing the forest zone.
“Centre will take the final call whether the Gulistapur forest should be destroyed to make way for DMIC industrial township or not. The Uttar Pradesh government is likely to send its report on the issue very soon,” said a senior UP forest department official.
Experts say the forest reserve is home to around 10,000 species of trees and the area is like an oxygen bank of the region.
“We have sent our demands to the concerned Greater Noida authorities to provide an alternate land where we can plant saplings to ensure that destruction of the Gulistapur forest do not affect the ecology. We want an alternative site in Gautam Budh Nagar district,” said a forest department official.
Gautam Budh Nagar district has only 7 per cent of its total area green against the stipulated 33 per cent.
“Gulistapur forest produces oxygen and nitrogen in huge quantity. Its destruction will affect the ecology of region to a great extent. But according to the Indian Railways, DMIC is more important,” the official said.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday laid the foundation stone of the Delhi-Mumbai rail corridor project which is expected to be completed by 2017.
Environmentalists say that despite the fact that green area, natural wetlands and ponds are fast diminishing in Noida and Greater Noida, local authorities hardly take measures to preserve the green cover.
“There were 19 wetlands in government record in 2009. Two years later, in an RTI application, the DFO said that there are only 6 wetlands. This is an irony that a state which is willing to spend ` 2,000 crore on an artificial night zoo is not protecting the natural wildlife,” said an environmentalist.
In 2008- 09, the erstwhile chief minister Mayawati had destroyed 80 acres of forest land, killing about 8, 000 trees to build a Dalit memorial along the Yamuna river in Noida’s Sector 93A.