‘Plant 10 saplings for 1 fallen tree’: Chandigarh okays felling of 1,348 eucalyptus trees on railway land

“While permission was granted in 2021 with a condition of planting 5 saplings for each cut tree, the recent approval has increased the plantation requirement to 10 saplings per tree. Despite the earlier condition, RLDA had already planted around 6,740 saplings, and now they will need to plant an additional 6,740. Huge parking lots, commercial establishments will come up on the area where thousands of eucalyptus trees stand. Indeed, the land where trees are standing is a railway property but it falls under Chandigarh. Hence the nod from the UT Administration is a must,” said a senior railway officer.

A source said, “Due to two reasons, UT administration has dragged its feet allowing the axing of 1,348 trees. First: The first company which was given the task to develop the station as world class was changed. RLDA will have to take fresh permission. Second: The changing guidelines about the number of plantations for one axed tree.”

Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF), UT, T C Nautiyal said, “In 2021, the rules were different. Indeed, we had granted permission to plant five saplings for each axed tree. Later, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) changed the condition to 10 saplings against one tree. The previous company which was redeveloping the station was not able to axe the trees. RLDA will submit the report of plantations to the UT Administration after every six months and our team will inspect. Moreover, we have also reserved the right of sudden inspections of the green belts and plantations of railway.”

In December 2022, RLDA had been awarded the tender for the re-development of Chandigarh station to make it ‘world class’ at a total cost of Rs 462 crore. The deadline for the project is April 2024. The land on which the redevelopment work is to take place belongs to the Ambala Railway Division.