Noida forest dept bats for scientific transplantation of trees, writes to authority

Noida: After several grown trees were felled in the city, the divisional forest department of Gautam Budh Nagar has written to the Noida authority asking them not to chop trees and rather transplant them

Noida: After several grown trees were felled in the city, the divisional forest department of Gautam Budh Nagar has written to the Noida authority asking them not to chop trees and rather transplant them.

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Pointing out that the pollution levels of the city are usually high, the forest department said that the authority must use scientific methods to transplant the trees so that they may live. A number of trees have been allowed to be chopped down for different ongoing development projects in the city.

“Use scientific methods to transplant the trees to save them from dying. Also, try to transplant as many trees as possible, even those that are permitted to be felled, so that the maximum number of trees could be saved,” read the letter sent Monday to the authority‘s horticulture department.

The letter came in light of opposition from environmentalists after a number of grown neem trees were felled at Parthala Chowk for development of a flyover on Sunday. According to the forest department, while 217 trees have been permitted to be felled for developmental works in the district, at least 1,816 trees are proposed to be shifted or transplanted elsewhere.

Officials said that while the authority does transplant trees, they don’t do it scientifically or through an expert agency, due to which several trees die.

“They usually dig the trees through JCB machines, which cut the roots and reduce the survival chances of a tree, while scientific methods consider a lot of aspects. There are machines that can do the job successfully. We have thus written to them to ensure proper transplantation,” said Pramod Kumar Srivastava, divisional forest officer, Gautam Budh Nagar.

Meanwhile, the Noida authority said that it will look into the matter, adding that the felling of trees at Parthala Chowk had been stopped.

“We have stopped the felling of trees at Parthala Chowk and will soon talk to the director of the horticulture department regarding scientific transplantation. So far this year, we have not transplanted any tree,” said Mahendra Prakash, deputy director of the horticulture department of the authority.

According to a city-based environmentalist, hundreds of trees are felled every year and those transplanted are not done properly.

“There are three major projects going on in the city. Hundreds of trees have either been felled or will be axed to complete these projects. Our question is – why do we chop fully grown trees that take years to contribute to the green cover, when we can transplant all of them. Besides, most of the trees that the authority transplants do not survive. A few years back, we had asked the authority via an RTI if they have a separate budget to transplant trees through an expert agency, and they didn’t,” said Vikrant Tongad, city based environmentalist.