UTTARAKHAND HAS LOST 45000 HECTARES OF LAND OVER THE LAST 25 YEARS

This is really worrisome and alarming that in Uttarakhand the forest cover is consistently reducing and lakhs of trees are being allegedly cut in the name of environmentally unfriendly development since the separate state came into formal existence. Though there is no doubt that development of the state is essential and in some situations inevitable too but not at the cost of massive environmental degradation. Uttarakhand Himalayas as all know are the regular source of irrigation and to quench the thirst of the civilization and the forests the lungs of the country emitting fresh oxygenated air giving lives to billions of people. Development doesn’t mean that there should be concretisation everywhere and large skyscrapers emerge to mint multiple profits at the cost of deforestation. There is a fundamental difference between the mountains, forests and the plains as the former are the treasure house of clean, viable and green environments for those living in the hills and plains including its rivers which emerge out of the glacial water quenching the thirst of the human beings and the nature. If forests will die so will the human civilization. In Uttarakhand, lately in the name of widening of roads , massive construction, explosion of the rocky mountains, construction of skyscrapers and underground railways making the already withering hills more hollow from inside lakhs of trees have been cut and good number of large capacity hydropower projects are being constructed throwing to winds all the environmental parameters despite the hard fact that entire Uttarakhand comes under Zone 5. For instance if we take the example of Dehradun of 2000 and today hundreds of resorts, hotels, skyscrapers, builders flats, unauthorised colonies etc have come up making Dehradun highly and immensely congestive and polluted with its temperature going to 40 degree Celcius during summers equivalent to Delhi. There have been massive cuttings of trees with 18000 already done and 51 thousands in the offing for sure. Sounds ironic that despite repeated protest demonstrations by enlightened citizens and environmentalists our politicians at the helm of affairs are not learning a lesson. What is more surprising and shocking is the fact that Uttarakhand has lost 45,000 hectares of forest land over the last 25 years in the name of development. These numbers are alarming and the vast majority of citizens do not want this kind of erratic development. We need different policies for hills and plains, and better regulations. If these trends continue, we will no longer have a green state left to live in says Anoop Nautiyal,founder member of SDC , author and renowned social activist of Dehradun.