Tree felling to widen roads out of sync with Supreme Court observation

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The decision to cut trees by the authority concerned in the state to widen roads is out of sync with the observation of the Supreme Court of India.

The forest is under tremendous pressure in Assam in meeting the daily livelihood of the forest fringe dwellers.

The government and NGOs plant lakhs of saplings every year. However, there is no count of the survival of the planted saplings.

Of late, the authority concerned has decided to cut 15,000 trees to expand the Dudnoi-Goalpara National Highway. The felling of 6,000 trees for widening the Doboka road in the Hojai District has not gone well with the people there. Even now, many organizations are staging protests against that move. Thousands of trees had to fall in the expansion of the four-lane highway from Nagaon to Upper Assam.

In a PIL relating to tree felling for the construction of roads in West Bengal, the apex Court observed last year – the government should explore all alternatives to tree felling. The top court also observed that the government should think of the cascading effects of tree felling on the environment. The Supreme Court even covered an extra mile and formed a panel to determine the environmental worth of a tree.

In its report, the panel put the monetary worth of a tree at 'the age of the tree multiplied by Rs 74,500, that is, the worth of a two-year-old tree is Rs (2x74500). The value of a tree comprises Rs 45,000 as the cost of oxygen + Rs 20,000 as the cost of bio-fertilizer. Thus, one may guess the loss we may incur in the felling of 15,000 trees.

The Supreme Court also observed that in the name of aforestation, the government plants lakhs of saplings that do not survive due to utter neglect.

Recently, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma asked the State Environment & Forest Department to submit a report on the percentage of survival of saplings planted in the name of aforestation.

Sources said that the department had spent crores of rupees in the name of aforestation in the past 10 years.

Official sources pointed out that the average per capita daily removal of fuelwood by the around 64.69 lakh forest-fringe dwellers in the state is 0.218 tonnes, fodder 3.751 tonnes, small timber 0.005 cubic metres (cum) and bamboo 0.007 tonnes for their livelihood.

According to sources, tree felling becomes a compulsion while constructing or widening any road in the state because of the thick green cover. In the event of alignment through negotiation not to fell trees, the cost becomes very high.

Why do not the authorities concerned, as the apex court said, see the worth of oxygen generated by a single tree in its lifetime, before felling it?

Also Read: Demarcation of Forest areas demanded in Arunachal Pradesh

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