Many leafy trees have been dotting the road even after devastating Super Cyclone of 1999. However, the Roads and Buildings Department (R and B) with support of local Forest Department has been cutting down the trees for road works. About one thousand trees have already been felled in past one week and at the end of the exercise several thousands more will be chopped down along the stretch.

The tree felling is being done to widen the road connecting Jagatsinghpur headquarters with Cuttack, sources said.

The trees chopped down from Jagatsinghpur outskirts to Tarikunda till date are mostly fully grownup trees that have been lining the stretch for the past one decade. Many of the trees that were chopped were planted during 2006 under avenue plantation drive launched by the local Forest Department with financial support from Iffco, Paradip unit. The Iffco had given Rs50 lakh from its CSR fund for developing roadside plantation in Jagatsinghpur.

Over 20,000 saplings had been planted in this stretch from Jagatsinghpur headquarters to Kandarpur during the drive.

Interestingly, the local Rand B Department had complained against the tree plantation since the road expansion project had been in their mind. The then Jagatsinghpur R and B division executive engineer GourangaSahoo had petitioned to the district Collector and the Forest department but his objection had been overlooked.

Even, allegations about serious mismanagement and bungling of funds in the plantation scheme were ignored since the fund had been supplied from Iffco.

Environmental activists and tree lovers from here who have witnessed the ongoing felling said that the R and B and Forest departments had not sought opinions from any one and have been single-mindedly cutting down the trees. Even the Tree Protection Committee, which was set up to check such brazen felling of trees, was not consulted with before the tree felling started.

According to the environmentalists, several trees along the stretch could have been saved if the plantation had been carried out with due coordination between the district administration, Forest and the R and B departments.

They suggested that the first solution to reduce the chopping of trees would have been to acquire land on just one side of the road. This would have saved the trees on a side. Even such a simple procedure was not followed by the R and B Department, rued an environmentalist.

“Had we been informed, we could have inspected the site and marked trees that could be saved or even relocated. But no one informed us,” said Naresh Kumar Jena, a PrakrutiMitra awardee and environmentalist here.

In the case of Cuttack- Paradip State highway expansion, a similar case of massive tree felling was undertaken. However, responding to huge public outcry, the R and B Department had taken up compensatory afforestation and developed roadside greenery in a systematic manner, reports said.

The environmentalists said that the actual road-widening plan itself is flawed, as there is not much of vehicular traffic on Cuttack- Jagatsinghpur road. As per law the authority has to follow a long process before they can legally chop down a public tree. However, in this case, nothing of the sort happened.

Meanwhile, R and B division executive engineer BibhutiBhusanMohanty said the Forest Department has been entrusted to undertake massive plantation after the road construction is over.