558 trees in way of Bharat Nagar road: NMC public notice

Nagpur: MahaMetro plans to ‘transplant’ 558 trees to construct a road through Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth (PDKV) land in Bharat Nagar according to a public notice issued in a Hindi daily on Saturday. It created panic among city’s greens who have been relentlessly fighting to save ‘Bharat Van’.
Released by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), the notice informs that 101 big and medium-sized trees and 457 small trees are coming in the way of the road project. “A proposal of transplanting these trees has been submitted by MahaMetro to the NMC garden department. If any citizen has an objection to this, it should be submitted in writing to garden superintendent and tree officer within seven days,” the notice added.
The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court is hearing a suo motu public interest litigation in the matter, based on a written letter by environmental activist Jaydeep Das. On February 26, the court had stayed felling of trees for the proposed road in Bharat Nagar.
As per NMC officials, issuing a public notice does not contravene court’s order. Municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar clarified that NMC will not grant permission to fell trees unless such directives come from the high court.
The notice, however, enraged the environmental activists and residents of Bharat Nagar who found the move to be “misleading”. Environment activist Shrikant Deshpande said, “It has been time and again proved that the survival rate of transplantation is very poor. The civic authorities are fooling citizens by giving such assurances. Now, high court remains the last hope for thousands of citizens who want to save this mini-forest.”
Das, who is also the honorary wildlife warden of Nagpur, said, “Issuing a public notice this way is a very clandestine move. It is shameful that on one hand, the authorities talk about 33-crore plantation drive and, on the other, they are determined to destroy age-old green heritage. The city is already reeling under the effects of climate change with record-breaking temperatures. Further damage to green cover for such mindless projects will make things worse.”
According to civic officials, the earlier plan was to cut around 1,200 trees. “NMC suggested a revised plan in which road alignment has been changed to bring down the number to 558. The width of the divider is increased to 2 meters to ensure that trees coming in its way are not felled. Trees coming on pavements will also be saved,” officials said.
Disapproving the revised plan, activists said that the road will destroy a thriving biodiversity habitat. “The question is not about number or size of trees. Bharat Van is home to thousands of species of birds and animals and not a single tree should be cut,” said Anasuya Kale Chhabrani of NGO Swachh Association.
Environmentalists have appealed to the citizens to come forward and file objection letters with the NMC.