Margao: The Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has issued directions to the Principal Secretary of PWD and others to compulsorily undertake tree plantation drives in order to compensate for the trees cut during developmental works.
The Chief Minister Parrikar in a letter to Government Agencies involved in public utility works has agreed that the road making and widening of Highways and other roads in the state makes removal of few trees unavoidable. “Every attempt must be made to plan shifting of affected tree and wherever it is difficult to do so, the Department should undertake a plantation drive to compensate the loss”.
The CM has also mentioned that the shifting/plantation must form an integral part of road making/widening project and has also asked for an action report be submitted for the perusal by him on regular basis. Herald had earlier highlighted over 2900 trees have been cut in South Goa for various road development works in the last 1 year, majority of them being for the roads like Western Bypass and also for the approach road of Zuari Bridge.
It was also revealed by Environmentalists that no one is following the mandate of replantation till date. It has also been proven that the track record of the PWD and the GSIDC in case of re plantation of felled trees is 0%.
The interest in this issue pertaining to the environment by the Chief Minister himself is a huge relief to the uncontrolled removal of trees for developmental works which mostly happened without any replantation. However the demand by environmentalists and villagers that the above circular of the CM be implemented with retrospective effect is getting strong. This because thousands of trees in North as well as South Goa have already been cut without and affirmative plan of replantation.
