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Felling of trees angers students, activists

CHANDIGARH: A group of citizens, students and members of social organisations on Friday protested against the cutting of trees on the Panjab University campus.

The University authorities auctioned 149 trees for over Rs.23 lakh to some private contractors after declaring over 110 trees as causing threat to people and buildings.

“If the reasoning that trees can cause danger to the public is accepted then very soon each and every tree across the country can be cut down on the same logic,” said social activist Hemant Goswami.

Gaurav Chabra of the NGO Humlog said that it was the duty of the Forest Conservator to verify independently whether there was any rationale behind felling of trees or was it sheer financial interests which motivated the auction of trees.

Student leaders alleged that not only the trees marked in the auction list and the “application for permission” were being cut but rather trees were being selected on the basis of their “commercial value”. They further alleged that most of the trees were deliberately wrongly numbered with the “design to cut double the number of trees for which sanction was sought”.

“There are no more than five to ten trees which cause some kind of obstruction to any new construction or whose branches cause obstruction. The University authorities have themselves written in the permission letter that only three trees were coming in way of construction,” said another student.

“The most unfortunate part is that even the Chandigarh Administration and Chandigarh Police did not act in an unbiased manner. The police registered case against the students who were protesting about the felling of tree and who exposed the irregularities in the university,” said Dr. Gaurav Chabra.

He also showed a video recording about the whole sequence of events and how the SDO and other officials reacted to the complaint made by students and citizens. The video also showed the incident on the basis of which the police registered an FIR against Anurag, the student who had sought all the information through RTI. Students said that the criminal case had been falsely registered against students to intimidate them. “We will now seek registration of a case against the SHO and the SDO for making a false complaint,” asserted a student leader.

The NGO Burning Brain Society has constituted an independent ‘Citizens’ Environment Audit Team’ to systematically investigate the whole issue. Dr. Chabra will be heading the team consisting of Panjab University students and concerned citizens of the city.

Meanwhile, students of Panjab University have decided not to celebrate Holi in protest against the ill-treatment and registration of false cases against the Indian National Students’ Organisation (INSO) leaders.

INSO activists also held a protest at the PU Students’ Centre against the fee hike, registration of false criminal cases and illegal cutting of trees on the PU campus. They also demanded an independent and impartial inquiry into the registration of false cases and illegal cutting of trees in PU.

In a statement here, INSO campus acting president Vikrant Malik said a false impression was being created to project INSO as an organization of hooligans, which was absolutely baseless, false and malicious.

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