At least 4,431 trees have been felled to make way for the upcoming ‘missing link’ on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway to connect the Khopoli exit on the existing highway to Sinhagad Institute near Lonavala. The tree felling was in violation of stage-1 forest clearance granted to the project, the minutes of a recent meeting of the regional empowered committee (Nagpur), constituted by the Union environment ministry, has revealed.
The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) had been granted stage-1 clearance to divert 75 hectares (ha) of forest land for the project in Raigad and Pune districts on February 6, 2019 “subject to fulfilment of certain conditions”.
“Maximum number of trees up to 60cm girth proposed to be felled may be translocated by the state government at the cost of the user agency,” the REC had stated while granting in-principle approval.
It now emerges that the trees were not, in fact, translocated but felled en masse, after the chief conservator of forests (CCF), Pune, issued a work order for it in 2019.
On April 22, in a compliance report submitted to REC, “the state government mentioned that the DCF (deputy conservator of forests), Alibag, has reported that the project-affected trees have been felled as due to steep slope and geographic condition it is not possible to translocate such trees.”
In its last meeting on June 24, 2021, REC noted that this was done “without giving any secondary thoughts”.
{{/usCountry}}In its last meeting on June 24, 2021, REC noted that this was done “without giving any secondary thoughts”.
{{/usCountry}}“The committee recorded its displeasure over such negligence and labelled it as direct violation of stage-I approval,” the minutes noted.
A formal inquiry report in the matter was sought within three weeks, from a senior forest department official not below the rank of CCF. The committee has also deferred granting stage-2 forest clearance to the project for the time being.
Given the conditions stated in the state government’s compliance report, REC opined that the matter should have been brought to its notice, along with a formal request to change the terms of compliance, and that a cogent justification for felling the trees should have been submitted to the Central government, which would have then decided on the issue on merits.
A former, unnamed DCF, who executed the work, has also been rapped for not following due protocol.
When contacted for a comment, Chandrakant Pulkundwar, joint managing director of MSRDC, directed that inquires be made to SK Survase, a senior engineer with the corporation. However, despite attempts, Survase could not be reached on Tuesday. HT was also unable to contact MSRDC vice-chairman and managing director Radheshyam Mopalwar.
Ashish Thakre, current DCF Alibag , however, said, “The felling of trees was carried out in mid-2019 before I assumed my current role. It is not uncommon for clearance works to begin without stage-2 approval, which is the final and official assent given by either the state or the Centre. It is allowed as long as the compliances specified in stage-1 approval are met.”
Thakre did not directly comment on the specific violations highlighted by REC.
Environmentalists criticised the scale of the offence, but said they were not surprised.
“This is the same sad story with nearly every government project. The authorities simply think they are above the law. Sadly, in most cases, the very authorities who are supposed to protect the environment watch as mute spectators to such illegal acts. In this case, the committee has at least expressed their displeasure and called for a report. We do hope that some action is actually taken under the law,” said Zoru Bhatena, a city -based environmentalist.