Shillong, June 23: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday halted the felling of the iconic English pine trees lining the stretch of road along the boundary wall of the Eastern Air Command (EAC) Headquarters at Upper Shillong.
A few of the iconic trees were cut down for widening of the Shillong-Dawki National Highway. But the move has evoked widespread protests on social media platforms.
“These images (felling of trees) are indeed disturbing. I have asked NHIDCL to stop it immediately till we can find a better solution. We need to balance between development and environment,” the Chief Minister tweeted.
These images are indeed disturbing I have asked NHIDCL to stop it immediately till we can find a better solution. We need to balance between development and environment. 🙏 pic.twitter.com/304tesUGS0
— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) June 23, 2021
“After the team from PWD led by ACS (PWD) visited the site the iconic stretch is mostly intact and not touched and will not be touched. We are further examining the matter,” he further tweeted.
Meanwhile, State Forest and Environment Minister, James Sangma said that only those trees which were “absolutely necessary” to be felled were brought down.
“Present instance of tree felling in Upper Shillong being a major road project for which 16.107 ha of forest land is affected, felling of trees is unavoidable. However, utmost care has been taken to ensure that only those standing trees which are considered absolutely necessary are permitted to be felled,” the forest minister said.
“The aged Cryptomeria japonica heritage trees along the roadside from Upper Shillong to Baniun adjacent to the EAC headquarters have been entirely shielded except for eight trees including two diseased standing trees whose felling was absolutely necessary in view of a curve and narrow space for the proposed highway,” the minister pointed out.
To safeguard the heritage trees, James said the NHIDCL (National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation) reduced the Right of Way (ROW) from standard 45-60 meters for 4-laning to bare minimum 24 meters with the utility provisions like water pipe lines, electricity and telecommunication.
“To reduce ROW, standard median of 2.5 meters has been reduced to a bare minimum 0.6 meters,” the minister said.
In order to compensate for the loss, the Forest Minister said compensatory afforestation would be undertaken in an equivalent non-forest area provided by NHIDCL at Nongumiang, West Khasi Hills district in accordance with the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
“For every singly tree felled for any purpose outside the forest land, 10 number of trees shall have to be planted as a compensation in order to ensure that the environment is protected,” James underscored.
The Pubic Work Department had proposed realignment and widening of the Shillong- Dawki National Highway at Upper Shillong through the protected forest.
The total affected forest area for diversion under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 was 16.107 hectares, including 15.296 hectares within the Protected Forest (PF) and 0.811 hectares deemed forest land outside the Protected Forest.
In principle approval for diversion of 16.107 hectares was granted by the Regional Office
Shillong, Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) on March 6, 2021 along with conditions for compliance to be fulfilled by the user agency, NHIDCL and the MOEFCC accorded final approval on April 30, 2021.
“The due procedure was followed for diversion of the forest land and felling of trees from forest and non-forest areas for the purpose of the aforesaid road project,” James iterated.
