Dehradun: Even as activists are up in arms at the felling of trees for the Delhi - Dehradun expressway and fighting a legal battle against the felling of over 2,000 trees along the Sahastradhara - Jogiwala road, the state government has decided to fell another 2,155 trees for the upcoming new assembly building in Bhopalpani area of Raipur.
The building will be constructed at a cost of Rs 470 crore on around 60 hectares of reserved forests in Raipur's Bhopalpani area, which is close to the buffer zone of Shivalik Elephant Reserve.
The biodiversity-rich area, of ten frequented by jumbos and leopards, is already threatened due to gradual encroachment and mining. Incidentally, this area is close to the region that recently witnessed devastating rainfall and the swollen Song river washing away several houses. Four people died and a portion of the Song river bridge was washed away in the incident that took place in Dehradun's Raipur area on August 20.
The latest information about the state government's plan to fell trees for the new assembly building was procured by Himanshu Arora of Citizens for Green Doon ( CFGD ) through an RTI query.
The response to the query stated that the area in question has two dozen species of trees. Among them, there are 785 Khair trees, followed by 656 Sheesham trees and 200 Semal trees. A majority of these tree species are significant considering their medicinal and trade value along with their natural occurrence in the Doon valley landscape, as per forest officials.
Himanshu Arora, general secretary of CFGD, said, " On average, the assembly session in our state goes on for just 10 days annually and for that purpose, a building worth Rs 470 crore is being built. Also, over 2,000 trees of the reserved forest area will be chopped, "
The response to the RTI query added that the state government will conduct an afforestation drive in the civil and some forest area of Dongri village under Mussoorie forest division's Tiuni tehsil to make up for the loss of these trees as per CAMPA rules of MoEFCC.
A district-wise analysis of the forest department data from November 2000 ( when the state was formed ) to March 2020 shows that the Dehradun district has lost 21,303 hectares of forest land to " de Velopmental activities " , the maximum among all 13 districts.
