Protest Gets Louder Against Tree Felling For MLA Apartments In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: The outcry against felling of hundreds of trees for construction of multi-storey apartments for the legislators in Odisha capital grew shriller as green lovers led by Mahanadi Banchao Andolan staged a protest on Tuesday.

The protesters staged a dharna at the construction site in Bhubaneswar, demanding cutting of trees to be stopped for the project immediately. Holding placards, they raised slogans against the state government’s move to sacrifice the green cover for concrete structures.

“The government decision is against the environment and people of Bhubaneswar. We strongly condemn the decision. We will continue our protest and not allow the cutting of trees anymore,” a local TV channel quoted Sudarsan Das, convener of Mahanadi Banchao Andolan as saying.

“So many concrete structures have come up in Bhubaneswar at the cost of thousands of trees. The world is going through a severe crisis of climate change. Given the seriousness of the situation, it may not be possible for human beings to survive on the earth,” said environmentalist Jaykrushna Panigrahi.

Earlier, the outfit had strongly opposed chopping of hundreds of trees for constructing accommodation of the MLAs. The environmentalists held that at a time when the capital city is already witnessing rising temperature with every summer,  further depletion of green cover would prove catastrophic. he outfit has already lodged a complaint at Kharvelnagar police station in this regard.

Total 870 trees will be felled for which enumeration has already been completed in the project area at Unit IV, City Forest Division sources said. Those include around 800 trees which are more than 60 to70 years old. Around 50 old trees, planted in the early years of the capital city, have already been chopped inside the previous MLA colony.

The Odisha Forest Development Corporation (OFDC) began cutting the trees as per the requisition of Odisha Bridge and Construction Corporation (OBCC), which is executing the Rs 275-crore project. While the number of multi-storey apartments is yet to be finalised, the project is believed to be of 10-11 floors having 300 quarters (flats). Besides, 25 Type-V and 105 Type-VI quarters, there will be market complexes, a police station, a health centre, gymnasiums with all facilities and a banquet hall to accommodate 2,000 to 3,000 people at a time.