Login Register
Follow Us

Karnal’s green cover dwindles

KARNAL-MUNAK 3:The felling of trees and diversion of land for non-forestry purposes has led to decline in the green cover in Karnal.

Show comments

Parveen Arora

The felling of trees and diversion of land for non-forestry purposes has led to decline in the green cover in Karnal. As per data, the widening of roads and construction of various projects has shrunk the forest area by 190 hectares in two years. The forest area has been reduced to 7,510 hectares from 7,700 hectares.

Due to traffic congestion, the state government had decided to widen all entry roads of the city up to 10 km. In the past two years, 23,672 fully grown trees have been axed for the widening of roads and for other development projects. Thousand more will be chopped in coming days. These trees are axed only after clearance from the Union Environment Ministry and depositing the cost of afforestation and deforestation by user agency, says an official of the Forest Department.

Despite the much-hyped intensive plantation drives of the department, the green cover in Karnal continues to diminish. Ironically, no compact area (a patch of land available on both sides of highways, canals and railway lines) is left in the district for afforestation due to which the district authorities have started planting saplings in other districts to cover the loss caused due to deforestation. The data says 15,464 trees were chopped in 2017-18, while 8,208 have been axed in 2018-19 so far.

The Forest Department claims to have planted double the number of plants axed for various projects.

“We planted around 1.1 lakh saplings in various parts of the district and 50,000 in fields of farmers in 2017. This year, 2.25 lakh saplings have been planted in various parts of the district and one lakh in the fields of farmers,” said Vijender Singh, District Forest Officer.

Confirming axing of trees, Ravinder Kumar Dhankar, general manager, Haryana Forest Development Corporation, said for road widening and other projects, 23,672 trees had been axed by the department in Karnal district in two financial years.

Sources in the department claim that in the wake of rapid deforestation, there would be no land left in the near future along the roads for afforestation unless additional land is acquired.

Environmentalists say Karnal does not have a very dense forest cover and the department should create land bank in the district. “The department should purchase land and develop the forest area, which will increase the green cover and boost tourism. There are sufficient funds lying unutilised under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority, which can be used for reclaiming the lost green cover in the district,” says Sandeep Nain, an environmentalist.

He says in the process of widening roads, the Karnal Municipal Corporation has left no space for plantation.

“More vehicles mean more carbon dioxide and only trees can save people from inhaling carbon,” says Nain.

SD Arora, another environmentalist, says rapid and unplanned urbanisation is one of the key reasons for the depleting green cover in cities. “The department claims it has planted thousands of trees even when the number is very less. I have sought the details of plantation and the status of the newly planted saplings with cost from the department,” he says.

“The government should adopt transplantation. If it uses earthmovers to dig around the trees carefully and transplants them, they will spring back to life,” he adds. 

Road-widening projects

Stretches Trees felled  

Karnal-Munak 3,054

Nilokheri-Nigdhu 6,000

Karnal-Kunjpura 1,364

Karnal-Kachwa      1,024 

Karnal-Jind 4,329

Karnal-Kaithal 8,170

Karnal-Indri 4,000

Show comments
Show comments

Top News

Most Read In 24 Hours