Bullet train authority 'ignores' listing big trees to be razed in Gujarat corridor

By A Representative

Environmentalists Rohit Prajapati and Krishnakant of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS) have alleged that at just one location alone, the planned Bullet Train corridor between Ahmedabad and Mumbai wouldn’t just be razing to the ground not those trees which have been listed, but also several other rare trees well.

Taking a round of the residential compound below the Shastri Bridge, which is also identified as Pandya Hotel Overbridge, on the Old Chhani Road, Vadodara, a Central Gujarat city, the concerned authorities of the bullet train in India, National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) “have listed only 33 fruit trees and have conveniently ignored 67 other trees that they had numbered with red oil paint at this location.”
Calling it a travesty of what is being sought to be projected, in a statement, they said, “The value of the trees (that is truly invaluable) is not to be considered by NHSRCL”, giving the names of trees which NHSRCL “ignored” while listing the trees to be chopped.
These trees, the PSS activists said, include a huge albizia lebbeck (siris) tree having a girth (circumference at chest level) of more than 13 feet; and a rare adansonia digitate (baboob) tree having a girth of more than 12 feet.
Other “ignored trees”, they said, include tectona grandis (teak) trees, with girths of more than four feet and terminalia arjuna (arjun) trees with girth up to 6 feet -- all 60 feet plus in height.
The senior activists comment, “And, this is just at one location in a 508 km long corridor for the planned, extravagant Bullet Train Project... For the absolute powers that be, ‘development’ has to be accompanied by absolute destruction. They aren't interested in considering better, alternative ways to develop the nation.”

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