Heritage trees felled by PWD in Chandur Bazar

NAGPUR: Municipal councils in the state seem to be showing the door to the amended Maharashtra (urban areas) Preservation & Protection of Trees Act, 1975, which mandates declaring 50-year-old trees as ‘heritage’ trees to increase the forest and tree cover.
After the Akot Municipal Council in Akola district violated the Act in August 2021 by giving the go-ahead to the PWD (NH Division) to fell 117 big and small trees in its 3km jurisdiction, now Chandur Bazar Municipal Council in Amravati district has violated the Act blatantly.

Last week, the PWD felled over 100 neem, subabul and other trees to widen 2.5km of the road to the railway station. Many trees were big and fell in the ‘heritage’ category. The amended Maharashtra (urban areas) Preservation & Protection of Trees Act, 1975, has already come into force and mandates declaring 50-year-old as ‘heritage’ trees to increase the forest and tree cover. If at all these trees are allowed to be cut, the project proponent has to plant trees equal to the age of the felled ones.
However, both, the municipal council, which granted permission to fell trees, and the PWD, which felled these trees, seem to be silent about the provisions of the Act.
Talking to TOI, Chandur Bazar Municipal Council chief officer Umesh Kapale could not give a satisfactory reply and was not confident whether the Act has been followed. “I will cross-check and let you know tomorrow. Tree felling permission to PWD has been granted on the condition of a compensatory plantation,” Kapale said.
Amravati PWD superintending engineer Arundhati Sharma said, “We will plant three times more trees than we have cut down for four-laning the existing road.” However, sources said PWD has not yet planted trees in lieu of the felled ones for the same project near the city bus stop earlier.
“The PWD is widening the existing 7-metre road to 21-metre from the city bus stop. The project has been partially completed for which trees were felled earlier but were not compensated. Now trees were felled to widen 2.5km of the road from Chandur Bazar to Parsoda,” said sources.
“It is really shocking that PWD is going for mindless destruction of the green cover in Amravati district, especially when temperatures have been soaring at intolerable levels. The row of huge neem trees were planted during the British era and provided shade to passers-by. Now the entire patch looks desolate. Many trees that were felled last week were over 60 years of age,” said green activist Sheikh Munna Sheikh.
The amended Maharashtra (urban areas) Preservation & Protection of 1975 mandates declaring 50-year-old as ‘heritage’ trees to increase forest and tree cover. Besides, if any project involves felling of 200 and more trees then such proposals are to be sent to the state-level committee.
The state environment ministry took a serious note of tree felling in Akot, and on August 24, had asked the Akola district collector to submit a report on the violation of the amended Act. However, nothing has been done even after 9 months. The forest department has still not calculated the age of the trees giving violators a free hand.
Swacha Association founder and green crusader Anasuya Kale-Chhabrani asked the state government to fix accountability. “In the last 10 years, road agencies like PWD, PWD (NH Division), and MSRDC have felled over 2.5 lakh trees for road expansion in Amravati region alone but these agencies have not planted any trees. An inquiry should be conducted by a high court judge against violations,” Chhabrani said.