Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Avenue trees: Forest Department files complaint against PWD

Special Correspondent

`Four more trees have been marked for felling'

Thiruvananthapuram: The Forest Department on Saturday filed a complaint against the Public Works Department (PWD) on the charge of unauthorised felling of avenue trees for the road-widening project in the city.

In the complaint filed by the Thiruvananthapuram Social Forestry range officer, the Kerala Road Fund Board, a PWD subsidiary, has been accused of felling four trees by the side of the University Stadium near the Rama Rao lamp junction. It also alleged that four more trees had been marked for felling.

Museum SI Mohammed Hussein said he had received the complaint. He added that the issue would have to be examined before registering a case.

Officials of the Social Forestry division said the PWD had failed to honour its commitment to protect the trees while carrying out construction work on the road.

"Four trees have already been uprooted and more may be cut down," an official said.

However, the Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Ltd. (TRDCL) executing the roads project maintains that the felled trees were on the land handed over by the University of Kerala. "We had secured the consent of the university to cut down the trees," a company official said.

The move to cut avenue trees for the roads project had incurred the wrath of the Forest Department and environmental activists. They argue that the construction activities had irreparably damaged the roots of the trees.

Meeting

A meeting convened by Law Minister M. Vijayakumar earlier this year had decided to protect the avenue trees. It however sanctioned the felling of 11 trees on the Kowdiar- LMS road, subject to a replanting drive.

A TRDCL spokesman said the compensatory plantation programme drawn up for the project was on stream.

"We have already planted more than 230 saplings to compensate for the 130 trees that had to be cut down on the Airport-Chacka and the Kowdiar- LMS roads. As many as 800 half-grown trees of various species have also been brought from the Punj Lloyd nursery at Belgaum to be planted at various locations," he added.

But the Social Forestry officials said the company was yet to prove its commitment to the compensatory plantation project. "They have formulated a project but failed to implement it. If the company is really serious, they should take up one road corridor as a demonstration project," they said.

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