Nagpur residents form human chain to protest tree felling

Thousands of local residents and members of various organisationsWednesday formed a human chain at Futala Lake here to protest the proposed felling of more than 700 trees in a green belt.

Students of colleges and schools also took part in the protest against tree cutting in the Bharat Van area.

Bharat Van is a vast green cover located on a tract of land belonging to the Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth (PDKV) in the Bharat Nagar area, where construction of a road towards Futala Lake has been proposed.

A musical fountain and a viewer gallery at the lake is also part of the project.

The Futala lake beautification scheme is a dream project of Nagpur MP and Union minister Nitin Gadkari.

However, around 200 fully-grown trees and around 500 small ones are expected to be cut for the proposed road towards the lake.

Acting on a PIL, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has ordered a stay on the felling of trees for the road. The PIL will come up for further hearing Thursday.

However, the project is facing resistance from the local residents and non-governmental organisations.

Honorary wildlife warden Nagpur Jaydeep Das, who is spearheading the campaign, told PTI he had written a letter to the HC on this issue which was later converted into a PIL.

"This particular green cover called Bharat Van is close to Futala lake wherein, a musical fountain and viewer gallery is proposed on the lake.

"MahaMetro is executing this project for Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC)," he said.

"However, authorities have planned an 18-metre wide and 0.5 km alternate route to the musical fountain on the lake for traffic diversion to it," said Das.

He said more than 700 trees, including200 fully-grown ones, are expected to be cut for this alternate route, destroying a rich ecological habitat in the heart of the city.

"This green cover is home to thousands of trees, some of them 100 years old, and also birds and small animals like monkey and peacock. The felling of trees will cause a huge damage to ecological balance here," said Das.

Das said the campaign to save the trees at Bharat Van has become a people's movement.

More than 5,000 people from various walks of life formed a 2km human chain around Futala Lake Wednesday to save the trees, he said.

Environmental activist Anusuya Chhabrani, an active member of the campaign, said, "We all want development but not at the cost of environment and heritage of Nagpur. We have to protect the green lungs of Nagpur for the future of the city."