Nagpur: City’s environment activists have sought the intervention of state environment minister Aaditya Thackeray to save ‘Nagpur’s own Aarey forest’ at Ajni, which is to be cleared for a proposed inter modal station and transport hub.
TOI had recently reported that thousands of age-old trees will be chopped off for the Rs 1,288.81 crore project coming up on Central Railway land, which is a thriving biodiversity habitat for birds and animal species. To be executed in two phases, the project will involve redevelopment of Ajni railway station, development of a bus port and other connected facilities, while phase two will involve commercial projects.
Taking objection to the loss of the greenery, honorary wildlife warden of Nagpur Jaydeep Das has raised the issue with Thackeray, requesting his immediate intervention.
In a letter written to the young minister, Das has said that the proposed project area has over 4,000 trees planted by the British before independence. According to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), which is the implementing agency for the project, 1,200 large trees will be cut for phase 1. “The second phase, which will come later, will also require cutting down of thousands of trees, exact number is not yet specified,” Das wrote.
The activist pointed out that taxpayers’ money was being utilized in an unplanned manner. “Infrastructure is being created right in the heart of the city, which not only has the potential to create traffic congestion but also lead to large-scale environmental damage. This area is one of the last few remaining green patches in the city,” he said.
Das further stressed that alternate sites for the project, especially on the outskirts of the city, with smaller green patches, are not being considered by the policymakers. “Nagpur is one of the most polluted cities in the country and a hub of coal-fired thermal power plants, which have led to immense toxicity in the air. Coupled with this, the last few years have seen rampant concretization and multi-layered infrastructural growth,” he said.
Along with the letter, Das has also submitted a study by Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Regional Remote Sensing Centre (RRSC), which revealed that from 116 square kilometres in 1999, the city’s green cover went down to 76 square kilometre by 2018.
The activist has appealed to the minister to save the green lung, which is now getting popularized as ‘Nagpur’s Aarey’.