Trees hacked by the hundreds, but no compensation
Suman Chakraborti | TNN
Kolkata: Several large trees have been chopped off along the stretch in front of City Centre in Salt Lake to make way for the East-West Metro project. A total of 800 trees will be chopped off. What’s worrying locals and green activists of the city is that the mandatory compensatory plantation is seldom put into practice after such large-scale felling of trees for several civic projects.
According to the rule book, for every tree felled, five trees have to be planted as compensation. However, in reality, this rule is hardly observed.
While the forest department has planted some saplings on road dividers, parks and green verges in Salt Lake, locals are not satisfied. “It is a complete crime as to how the trees have been chopped off,” said B K Chatterjee of Bidhannagar Bachao committee.
“The authorities have planted a few saplings haphazardly. This can in no way compensate the loss of the massive green cover,” said an horticulture expert.
On Sunday, ToI inspected some of the previous projects for which several large trees had to be felled. Several trees were cut down for the Gariahat flyover that was inaugurated way back on 2002. Seven years down the line, the concrete stretch below the flyover is now occupied as car parking lots.
Hundreds of trees were cut down along the Tolly Nullah to execute the extended Metro alignment from Tollygunge to Garia. Similarly, many trees were cut for the AJC Bose flyover project. The forest department had beautified small stretches beneath the flyover, but that can hardly compensate for the loss of full-grown trees.
Many large trees were chopped off along the Kestopur canal side off VIP Road by Hidco authorities to carry out dredging work. More recently, several large trees were felled for the EM Bypass-VIP Road flyover project. Authorities say the compensatory plantation drive would take place once the flyover work gets completed.
At present, the authorities who cut down trees hand over the required money to carry out compensatory plantation to the forest department.
“Either the contractors take up the job by themselves or they hand it over to the forest utilization division. Authorities of the Metro project had reportedly given Rs 40 lakh to the forest department to carry out compensatory forestation,” said a senior forest official.
As there is no monitoring authority to oversee the drive, there is a danger to the city’s green cover, fear environmentalists. Green activist Subhas Dutta said such a moniteering body is the need of the hour.
2 comments:
It is truly a matter of concern as the greenary of Slat Lake is being destroyed in the name of development. Added to this is the sound and dust pollution being created by the ongoing works of the metro project. Most of the residents living by the side of the road leading to Sector V from Karunamoyee, are being subjected to unbearable sound levels specially at night and early morning hours. I am sure that there is a rule in place as far as the sound pollution is concerned which is being not adhered to. And I also believe that there is a supervising authority who is not doing its job. This is a serious matter and needs to be tackled at the earliest.
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