The Benefits Of Tree Felling
One lakh trees and shrubs are to be cut to enable construction of a two-lane road from Ghaziabad to Haridwar, according to media reports. Environmentalists and activists opposed this – not unexpectedly, given their constant anti-development stance. This tree felling in a forest area is for the very laudable cause of facilitating the movement of Kanwariyas during the yatra season when they carry holy water from the Ganga back to their villages.
The project has reportedly got a nod from the central ministry charged with looking after the environment. Given their mandate and their unbiased experts, it is odd that outside experts and academics oppose this, exposing their own vested agenda. After all, compensatory afforestation will be carried out elsewhere in the state. This will be similar to what is proposed for the planned mega project in Nicobar, for which compensatory afforestation may be done in Haryana. How does it matter that trees planted over 2500 km away may not correct any climatic change in far-way Nicobar, especially when there is so much economic gain to be got from the ambitious Rs 75,000 crore transhipment port based development project in Great Nicobar conceived by NITI Aayog?
Hopefully, the new Kanwariya route will have a proper paved road, facilitating the passage of loud-speaker carrying trucks; blaring music being an essential part of the pilgrimage. Maybe, a four-lane road would be better, taking care of future needs. If more trees need to be cut, that’s fine – we have enough forests and trees, and some culling may do good. Compensatory afforestation could always be done elsewhere – say, in Mizoram or Arunachal, since UP may not be able to find more empty land. A similar exercise of road broadening for other yatras, like the Char Dham one, has resulted in excellent highways. Again, the anti-development activists had made a hue and cry about deforestation and delicate Himalayan geology, but our courts and regulators had the wisdom to dismiss their pleas. Even minor incidents, like the problem in the Silkyara tunnel, are but small collateral-damage issues and have been solved with our tremendously talented workforce.
Some pesky activists may well move the courts on the proposed tree cutting, citing a recent judgement by the Delhi High Court. While declining a stay on demolition of religious structures adjoining a mosque (saying that we have enough peers, dargahs and temples in the city), it added that forests are Delhi’s green lungs and need to be preserved and restored. In the interest of the Kanwar route, one hopes that such considerations apply only to Delhi. People should not be led astray by propaganda that Delhi’s pollution would be less severe if there are more trees in the wider NCR region. States like Haryana know this and therefore oppose the interpretation of laws in ways that would stop conversion of some lands to non-protected areas open for construction. Clearly, UP too knows this and sees all the advantages of creating a new route through the forest for the Kanwariyas. The tea stalls, and restaurants – who knows, may be malls too – that come up on the route will give a stimulus to the local economy and create employment, apart from that provided by construction and tree-cutting. If this means more trees to be cut, that is a minor price compared to all the benefits.
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*The author loves to think in tongue-in-cheek ways, with no maliciousness or offence intended. At other times, he is a public policy analyst and author. Among his books is Decisive Decade: India 2030 Gazelle or Hippo (Rupa, 2021).
