Berhampur: Drawing flak for cutting down trees to widen roads, the Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) has launched a tree transplantation drive, reports said.
Facing massive protests by greens and the Sabuja Vahini over the cutting of trees for widening city roads, particularly the stretch from Ramlingam Pond to Mango Market via Girls’ High School, Sub Registrar Office, the City High School Ground in Prem Nagar and Housing Board Square, the BeMC has stopped cutting down trees.
The Silk City had lost substantial green cover due to the widening of roads, underground cabling and works on drains and sewage lines under the Odisha Disaster Recovery Project.
The change in the approach of the city’s administration is the result of the intervention and protests by nature lovers and the Sabuja Vahini.
Sabuja Vahini advisor Banamali Pradhan said, “Decades old fully grown trees were being axed. This was increasing temperatures in the city. So we requested the BeMC to uproot the trees and replant it at other places as the cutting of trees will cause environmental problems.”
“In the beginning, the trees were cut during the day. The workers tried to continue work secretly at night. But after repeated complaints they have stopped it now,” he added.
Social worker P Arvind Kumar Desibehera said, “The transplantation of trees will allow the city to solve environmental problems.”
The uprooted trees are being replanted on the Berhampur City High School Ground and at the Nilakantheswar Cremation Ground. The Sabuja Vahini also lent a helping hand in the transplantation drive.
BeMC Commissioner Chakravarti Singh Rathore said the corporation will join the Forest Department and the Berhampur Development Authority (BDA) to develop parks, roadside gardens and to transplant trees.
“We are planning to plant trees near the 50 to 60 public toilets in the city. Our target is to plant around 2,000 to 3,000 trees this year,” said Rathore.
PNN