‘Illegal’: 20,000 trees cut for Gurugram-Rewari highway, greenery turned to NGT Gurgaon News – Times of India

GURUGRAM: A group of environmentalists has approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against the felling of 20,000 trees to widen the 43-km-long Gurugram-Rewari highway, calling it “illegal”. The tribunal will hear the petition on Friday. The petitioners alleged that the trees were allowed to be cut without considering the existing laws and guidelines.
Vivek Kamboj, one of the petitioners, said, “This is a clear violation of the National Forest Policy, 1988. It states that the national goal is to have a forest or green area on at least one-third of the total land of the country.” , The National Forest Policy states that “the national goal should be that at least one-third of the total land area of ​​the country is covered by forest or trees. In hills and mountainous areas, the goal is two- to prevent erosion and land degradation and to protect the vulnerable areas.” One third of the area under such cover to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem.
The petition also said that the agency implementing the project – NHAI in this case – was urged to cut trees on only one side of the road. But no such suggestion was made, the petition said.
According to the law, no tree can be cut unless 10 other trees are planted against it. In this case, no compensatory afforestation has been done yet, environmentalists pointed out. There is hardly any land available in GurugramForest department officials are planning to plant 1.5 times more trees than the number of trees that were cut outside the district. An alternative to them could be Morni-Pinjore in Panchkula district, which is 300 km from Gurugram.
The objection to felling of trees comes at a time when a Forest Survey of India (FSI) study has found that Gurugram lost 2.47 sq km of forest area in just one year between 2019 and 2020.
As per the rules governing compensatory afforestation, 1,100 saplings are planted in an area of ​​one hectare.
“The design of the project is contrary to the ‘Policy Guidelines for Land Acquisition, Tree Cutting and Utility Transfer’ in the alignment issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, which requires felling of trees on only one side of the right of way,” Vaishali Rana Chandra, an environmentalist said.
Roma J Vinayak, another green activist, said, “The cost benefit analysis does not consider global warming, climate change and most importantly, the impact of tree felling on bird life.” Meanwhile, the forest department confirmed that there are 8,373 trees and 3,948 saplings and 4,049 trees and 4,137 saplings in Gurugram. Rewari was dropped. An official said compensatory afforestation would be done outside Gurugram.