Plan to fell trees for water tank in Gurugram’s Leisure Valley Park shelved

A plan to axe 26 trees for construction of an underground water tank at the Leisure Valley Park in Sector 29 has been shelved.

The forest cover in Gurugram is expected to decrease with the proposed felling of 1,300 trees for constructing a flyover, underpass and an auditorium and the decision by the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has brought relief to residents.

The authority had sent a letter to the forest department about a week ago, seeking permission for felling 26 trees in a corner of Leisure Valley Park for constructing an underground tank to store treated water from Behrampur sewage treatment plant.

“We rethought our request for felling the trees and have decided to construct the underground water tank at a nearby parking lot, which is presently not used much. This will save trees and we are withdrawing our request for felling trees,” said Rajbir Singh, advisor, urban environment, GMDA.

The authority is planning to construct an underground tank of 6 lakh litres to store recycled water for watering trees and plants in the park.

Leisure Valley Park is spread over 35 acres and has a large number of big and small trees, besides ornamental plants. At present, underground or potable water is used to water the trees. The GMDA has decided to use treated water instead.

Singh said that after the construction of the tank, the surface can be utilised by light vehicles, as such there would not be any space constraint too.

“It is a welcome decision and one worth following. We have to find a way to sustain development and nature,” said Deepak Gaur, popularly known as the Tree Man, who has been planting saplings in the national capital region (NCR) since 2010 and aims to plant a billion trees by 2020.

HT had on Monday reported that the state public works department (PWD) has sought permission to fell 1,300 trees for constructing an underpass and a flyover at Atul Kataria Chowk, for smoother movement between Delhi and Gurugram.

The department has sent a proposal to remove trees to the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) through the state forest department.

Also, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has received permission from the forest department to remove 106 trees — fell 28 and transplant 78 — for constructing an auditorium at Bal Bhawan in Sector 4.

According to the forest department data, 2,276 trees were cut in Gurugram in 2015-16, 7,221 in 2016-17 and 7,551 in 2017-18.