Nagpur: Environmentalists have released satellite images providing evidence of large-scale tree felling at Ajni. As per environmentalists, over 400 trees have been felled illegally by the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) through its contractors for Ajni Station redevelopment project.
On Sunday, a team of officials from Imamwada Police Station inspected the area. However, environmentalists informed that despite taking follow up, a First Information Report (FIR) was not filed on Monday. They have now released satellite images of November last year that show dense green cover in the area which is now completely barren. “The on-ground reality is quite the opposite of satellite images. The area which used to have dense green cover till last year has now lost its trees,” said the green crusaders.
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While Nagpur Municipal Corporation and police officials both assured of taking appropriate action, the crusaders have demanded immediate FIR against RLDA. “It should not be filed against an unidentified person as it is absolutely clear that the railway has chopped off the trees through its contractors without taking the mandatory permission. When there is a violation of rules, why are authorities delaying action? Why are the cops not ready to detain the JCB of the contractor when they had themselves seen it burying the evidence?” they questioned.
According to the activists, the police are waiting for the completion of the tree count process of the locality initiated by the Garden Department of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) on Sunday. The green activists on Monday came up with a Google map image highlighting the place with green canopy where illegal tree-felling took place recently.
“The image of the Google Map clearly shows that the trees were there till a few days ago and now all the trees are chopped off for construction of the parking area by the contractor,” Jaideep Das, former Honorary Wildlife Warden said. “The spot panchnama by NMC is underway. It will take some more days to complete. We have shared the Google map images of Ajni Railway Colony with the police and NMC as well. The images show that the tree felling did take place at two-three places in the Colony,”said Das.
The green activists claimed that the RLDA’s station development project is a re-modelled IMS project only with another bus stop which is under trial. “Even during the first phase of IMS-1 when NHAI were the executors and had said that only approximately 1,000 trees to be felled, the greens had stuck to their stance that there would be approximately 7,000 trees in 44 acres of IMS-1. And it was proven right when NMC did a survey and recorded 6,953 trees in 44 acres,” said an activist.
Environment activist Sharad Paliwal said, “In the present case, some changes in plan and architectural drawings can save many trees, specifically the heritage ones. The existing trees could have created natural shade and landscaping for parking in addition to keeping the environment cool and pollution free.”
