16,000 trees to be cut for widening 90 km of National Highway 17

16,000 trees to be cut for widening 90 km of National Highway 17

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, September 16: NHAI’s road-widening project includes the felling of more than 16,000 trees along the Thalapady – Kundapur stretch of NH17, which the forest department states to be the largest felling of trees in 10 years.

 

The NHAI has already paid the required fees to the forest department. The forest department collects Rs. 800 for a felled tree as well as Rs. 94,000 per kilometer of felled trees to compensate the loss. The NHAI and the lumbering company must sign a deal with the forest department that they will plan two saplings for every tree they fell, build protective barricades around each sapling, and arrange to take care of them. Mr. Vijayakumar, the DFO of Mangalore range, said that the felling is scheduled to begin in August.

 

 

Mr. Manjunath Shetty, the ACF of the Kundapur division, said that, according to a High Court order issued in 2003 by Justice M. F. Saldanha, the forest department is empowered to collect the required fees to help compensate the loss to the area’s ecological system. He also said that the NH17 stretch at Kundapur was ecological sensitive and planting trees in this region is essential.

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Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, and Udupi require a green cover of 33 percent, but so far, only 27 percent of these districts have a green cover. In spite of this, the coastal green cover of these regions is better than the national average of 22 percent and the state average of 19 percent. This, however, does not mean that trees can be cut indiscriminately without making any attempts to cover the loss.