Madhya Ganga Canal: Survey of damaged trees ordered, report soon
Officials privy to the matter said the firm in question, RCC Developers Ltd, violated instructions not to carry out work until allegations of illegal tree felling were resolved.
A physical survey has been ordered to verify the number of trees felled by a private company for a road project on the Madhya Ganga Canal, a key official said on Sunday.
Officials privy to the matter said the firm in question, RCC Developers Ltd, violated instructions not to carry out work until allegations of illegal tree felling were resolved.
The development comes days after a case was filed against the private company in Meerut. Speaking to HT over phone, the state forest corporation’s divisional logging manager (DLM) Brahmanand said that the company uprooted and damaged trees despite a ban.
“I have directed the field staff to count how many trees they have uprooted and damaged. The report will be sent to the officials soon,” said Brahmanand, who added that approval was given for felling 1.12 lakh trees in a 27-metre wide area on the left bank of the canal for construction of the road.
The allegation against the company is that it felled trees even outside the approved width area of the project.
The divisional logging manager said that they (the authorities) protected 1950 notified trees in the approved width area.
“Our effort was to protect as many as trees (as possible) from felling,” he said.
The DLM said that less than 50 per cent notified trees have been felled yet.
The FIR registered against the company at the Jani police station of Meerut district under Section 303 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita and Section 33 of the Indian Forest Act said that the company violated the order and kept uprooting trees at lot numbers 100 and 101 of the Rithani range.
Taking cognizance of this “irresponsible behaviour” of the company, DLM Brahmanand wrote a letter to the public works department (PWD) officials and directed them to lodge a case against the company.
The PWD is constructing the nearly 110- km-long ODR (other district road) on the left bank of the canal. The department’s assistant engineer Pradeep Sharma lodged the FIR at Jani police station on August 9 in which the company was accused of felling/ uprooting trees at the project site in violation of the existing order for a ban on such activities.
“We lodged the FIR against the company after receiving a letter from the DLM of the forest corporation,” said Sanjay Singh, executive engineer of PWD in Meerut. He said the company was engaged in uprooting trees and shifting logs even during the visit of chief secretary Manoj Kumar Singh to the site on August 7 and he also expressed his dismay over it.
It was Samajwadi Party MLA from Sardhana Atul Pradhan who raised the issue of illegal tree-felling for the project. He accused officials of felling trees even outside the approved width area of the project and reported the matter to the chief secretary, divisional commissioner and also raised it in the state assembly during the recently concluded Monsoon session.
He also took the issue to the National Green Tribunal (NGT). After a hearing, the tribunal has formed a four-member committee to probe the charges.
“A team of NGT is expected to arrive soon,” Pradhan said and asserted that his battle against illegal tree-felling would continue.
He said he suspected there may have been similar wrongdoing on national highways.
“I will carry out inspection of national highways passing through the district to expose such wrongdoings,” he said.
The proposed ODR on the left bank of the canal will start from Muradnagar in Ghaziabad district and pass through Meerut and Muzaffarnagar districts to connect Haridwar. The road covers 12 km in Ghaziabad, 57 km in Muzaffarnagar and 43 km in Meerut.
As per the divisional forest officer, Meerut, more than 17,000 trees have been felled in all three districts, 40,000 plus trees remain and the others are saplings.
The ODR project being handled by the PWD and the irrigation department was conceptualised around two years back.
