Over 1L trees to be cut for kanwar road in West U.P, environmentalists flay move

MEERUT Over 1.12 lakh trees and plants would be felled for constructing 110-km-long kanwar road on the right bank of the Upper Ganga Canal. While the state government has given approval to the project, the final nod from the Union government is awaited to begin the felling of trees before construction of the road.

For the project, the state government has already released ₹249 out of its total budget of ₹628 crores. The road would be constructed on the canal side, starting from Muradnagar of Ghaziabad. The road will pass through Meerut and Muzaffarnagar before entering Hardwar.

To compensate for the felling of trees, land has been provided in Lalitpur for plantation. Authorities will plant double the number of trees and plants that are felled. However, environmental enthusiasts are opposing the felling of such a large number of trees. They say that it would adversely impact the ecology and wildlife of the affected land, spread over Ghaziabad, Meerut, and Muzaffarnagar districts.

Speaking on the proposed development, professor Sudhir Panwar, an environment activist and former member of state planning commission, said that Britishers built canals but never interfered or exploited the canal-side ecology. They were aware of its significance in terms of ecology and wildlife. He added that felling of such a large number of trees would have adverse impact on peoples’ lives and demanded that government should think of some alternatives to carry forward the construction of the road without felling such a big number of trees.

Professor Panwar also questioned the planting of saplings in Lalitpur for compensating the harm that will be caused by felling over 1 lakh trees. He said, “Saplings should be planted here instead of planting it thousands kms away from here.” It has been learnt that a few officials voiced a similar concern.

Divisional forest officer (DFO) of Meerut, Rajesh Kumar, has confirmed that the project — approved by the state government — will be implemented after the final go ahead from the Centre. He said that the road would be constructed on the right bank of upper Ganga canal which bifurcates from Hardwar. DFO Kumar added that over 20,000 trees and 40,000 plants would be felled in Meerut for road construction.

Notably, a kanwar road has already been constructed on the left bank of the canal. The demand for construction of the new kanwar road was raised as lakhs of pilgrims walk with kanwar between Hardwar and their native places in Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh during the yatra. During this period, the traffic on NH-58, NH-24, and other routes gets badly affected due to heavy rush of kanwarias. Officials hope that the construction of the new kanwar road would ease traffic on main highways.