A number of trees proposed to be cut for road widening in Odisha’s Berhampur are being saved through their replantation, thanks to the exemplary initiative by Berhampur Sabuja Bahini, a group of young nature lovers.
Impressed with their work, the Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) has now decided get the trees replanted at proposed children’s parks and other open spaces around the city. BeMC commissioner Chakravarti Singh Rathore issued a notice on Tuesday to the construction firm concerned to minimise cutting of trees for road widening and drain construction.
“When it is an extreme necessity, the construction firm can carefully uproot the grown trees with its machinery and replant them at other places. If the firm violates this order, action will be initiated against it,” said Mr. Rathore.
Praise for group
The BeMC commissioner was all praise for the youth activists of BSB, who on their own had replanted four trees, which were over seven years old, without using any machinery. The contractor involved in the road widening work had agreed to help the group by uprooting the trees with its excavator and transporting them by truck to Nilakantheswar cremation ground where three of them were replanted on February 10. Another uprooted tree was replanted at the City High School ground the next day. The BSB through its efforts had drawn the attention of the city dwellers as well as the BeMC authorities towards indiscriminate cutting of trees for urbanisation.
At present, the road connecting the sub-registrar office square and the mango market is being widened, and a new drain is being constructed. This construction work requires cutting down of around 70 grown trees.
The construction firm had already cut down 10 trees when the activists of BSB decided to intervene and transplant them on their own.
“In a cyclone-prone and tree-scarce city like Berhampur we cannot let mature trees to be cut indiscriminately as it takes years for a planted sapling to become a tree,” said BSB president Sibaram Panigrahy.
The BSB is continuing its efforts to cure trees damaged by nailing and other metal intrusions to put up advertisements and hoardings. The BeMC has also extended its support to the movement by declaring ₹1,000 fine on those involved in harming trees through metal intrusions.