Forest department promises funds for BDP site at Baner-Pashan Link Road

PUNE: The proposed biodiversity park in Baner-Pashan Link Road area could see a fresh dash of greenery soon, with Jeet Singh, chief conservator of forests, assuring to provide funds for the site.
The officer also said that the forest department would examine the ownership of land, which runs into hundreds of acres, and look into complaints of people misusing the land by dumping garbage and drinking liquor at the isolated spot.
Singh visited the site after local residents complained about illegal tree-cutting, allegedly for firewood by labourers employed at construction sites nearby. He has also offered to fence the site after the land ownership issue is cleared up.
During his hour-long visit to the site, Singh was shown around the area by members of the Baner-Pashan Link Road Vikas Samiti and representatives of Vasundhara Swachhata Abhiyan, who apprised him of the problems.
Kishore Mahajan, president of the Samiti, expressed satisfaction with the official’s visit. “We put forward our concerns about the rampant tree-cutting at the biodiversity park site, as well as the nuisance created by miscreants who take advantage of the isolation to indulge in drinking liquor at the site. Municipal waste is openly dumped in the park, apart from empty bottles and construction debris. The problem is also compounded by the porous hilly area for which we made some suggestions were made by us, Mahajan said.
He added that Singh has also proposed putting up benches and constructing jogger’s lanes in the park to make it more accessible to citizens, which in turn could help reduce its misuse. “We hope there can be a solution to the problem soon,” Mahajan said.
Singh said that he hoped to address all the complaints made by residents. “We will first have to figure out the ownership issues, based on which a lot of other matters will get resolved. But I will definitely allocate funds to make the area greener,” he said.
Singh was also shown the tree plantation done by members of the Abhiyan along the highway, near Pashan-Sus Road. The organizations has planted and nurtured more than 12,000 saplings across Baner, Pashan, Balewadi, Sus and nearby areas.