Probe ordered into plan to cut 10k trees near Gangotri

DEHRADUN: Taking note of a TOI report that over ten thousand trees are in danger of being cut to widen the highway between Harsil and Gangotri, director general of forests in ministry of environment and forests, SS Negi said on Monday that he would initiate an enquiry in the matter and take action against the forest officials who were permitting felling of trees in what was an eco-sensitive zone.“The felling of trees should not have been permitted in the area at all. I have come to know that even deodar trees -- which are very old -- have been earmarked for felling. This is a serious matter and we will take stern action against those involved,” Negi added.
Ravi Chopra, former director of the NGO Peoples’ Science Institute and an eminent environmentalist, had termed the tree felling in the area which lies along the Ganga as "an ecological disaster in the making." He had pointed out that tree felling for road widening is restricted in Uttarkashi, which has been declared as eco-sensitive zone and is already prone to landslides, floods and earthquakes. "Authorities can not have the same norms for widening of roads for eco-sensitive zones as they have for plain areas such as Dehradun and Haridwar. It seems that the state government is hell bent upon earning revenue by putting lives of scores of people in danger and fragile ecology at stake.”
Meanwhile, Negi said that he would talk to the officials of the regional office of the ministry of environment and forests in Dehradun on how permission has been given for the tree-felling. "If need be, we will take the help of satellite imagery to find out the trees that had been earmarked."