“Sign the petition” initiative by conscious citizens for stopping the Uttarakhand government cutting three thousand trees in a Project of road widening from Dehradun to Rishikesh
There is tremendous resentment and annoyance among the environmental lovers, the local populace and conscious citizens towards protecting the degrading environment of Dehradun and Rishikesh including NGOs like SDC Foundation and Alok Uniyal coming forward with a healthy initiative of a drive to Sign the petition appealing to the government authorities to give up the widening of the two lane roads to four lane roads project from Dehradun to Rishikesh which leads to cutting of more than three thousand fully grown up trees of different species thus unbalancing and degrading the already fragile environment of Uttarakhand especially Dehradun and Rishikesh including its surrounding areas which are already badly polluted due to the rampant contruction activities with skyscrapers coming up throwing to winds all the set environmental norms including making Dehradun and Rishikesh excessively cohesive and densely populated. Recently in Dehradun hundreds of conscious citizens and environment lovers staged an awareness march holding play cards protesting against the felling of more than three thousand trees in this project to widen the Dehradun to Rishikesh Road making it four lane from the present two lane roads. According to the Sigh The Petition initiative launched by Alok Uniyal to oppose this ongoing project urging more and more people to sign it to pressurise the government to give up this project says :
As part of a road widening project to expand the current 2-lane road to 4-lane, between Bhaniyawala in Dehradun to Rishikesh, over 3000+ trees are proposed to be felled ! Marking of trees for felling is about to start and hence the urgency of this Petition !!
This area has rich and diverse flora and fauna – trees slated for felling include Sal-772, Rohini-1000, Kanju-880, Amaltas-143 among others; faunal diversity includes elephants. leopards, antlers etc.
The felling of trees will severely impact the already fragile ecological balance, as it will result in
- Reduction of green cover, which will further contribute to higher temperatures. Doon valley has already seen drastic change in its weather, experiencing severe heat in summers
- Loss of wildlife habitats and biodiversity
The fact that this area is part of the Shivalik Elephant Reserve means that this project will further endanger the elephants.
The adverse impact of this project on the environment, far outweighs the benefits. Through this Petition, we are urging the State Govt of Uttarakhand to
Engage with environment experts and the community to explore sustainable development options.
Re-evaluate the road widening project, starting with a detailed environment impact assessment.
Implement measures to protect & preserve 3000+ trees.
This is the urge of this petition to the government which is hell bent upon cutting more than three thousand trees in the name of the so called unfriendly development of four lane road from two lane from Bhaniawala Dehradun to Rishikesh.
Kindly recall that in the context of the all weather Roads project and the railway project from Rishikesh to Karna Prayag thousands of full grown up trees were cutted including already fragile environment of the Uttarakhand Himalayas disturbed badly making the already weak mountains more and more hollow from inside after digging 80% tunnels up to Karna Prayag route of the train measuring 125 kilometres from Rishikesh. We haven’t learnt lessons from the past catastrophes.
The Silkyara Tunnel instance is in front of us when it collapsed and fifty five labourers were trapped inside. The Uttarkashi massive earthquake that took the till of more than seventy hundred lives and the ecological disaster of 2013 Kedarnath which claimed over 5.5 thousand lives as per the government figures are stark reminders of playing with environment in the name of the so-called environmentally unfriendly development in the hills of Uttarakhand. Moreover, Uttarakhand is under Zone 5 prone to earthquakes and ecological disasters. Afterall when will we understand, is a moot question ? To sign the petition click this link as below :
