Environmentalist requests authorities to plant over 24,000 trees to replace those axed for highway widening

The Sagar division of the state Forest department has given a clearance to cut 488 trees for the highway, approval for which had come in 2019. Last year, the Union Ministry of Road and Transport had approved a revised estimate of a four-lane project of the Tumakuru-Shivamogga NH-206 at a cost of Rs 6,398.02 crore.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will pay Rs 43 lakh to the Forest department to plant ten trees in place of each tree that will be cut. However, Chipli criticised and said, “The trees are more than hundred-year-old so it is scientifically prudent to replace one tree with 50 trees in order to maintain the original Leaf Area Index (LAI).”

He added, “The number of trees to be planted should be in accordance with the size of the crown or a tree canopy. We propose an authority dedicated only for the cause of plantation in the Public Works Department (PWD) to take charge. We may call it the PWD Plantation Department.”

He further said, “For example, for a tree with a small crown, 10 saplings can be planted and for trees with a bigger crown, 50 saplings can be planted and so on. This approach will help in achieving the original LAI in a shorter span of time. The authority responsible for planting the saplings should be responsible for their survival for the next 11 years.”

Environment lawyer Veerendra Patil said the amount which the NHAI will pay in lieu of cutting down the trees is not important. “Amount cannot compensate for the benefit which 100-year-old trees were giving to society. Trees with a huge canopy release 100 kg of oxygen. The 24,400 saplings should be planted on either sides of the highway,” he added.

The Supreme Court in the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights vs The State of West Bengal case wherein 356 trees were to be felled, most of which were 150-year-old, had stated that “compensatory afforestation cannot replace trees of this value”.

Chipli added, “Big trees sequester more than two hundred kilogram of carbon from the atmosphere every year and convert it into roots, leaf litter, and brush wood and wood.”