High drama over felling of full-grown trees near Bapu Kuti

Nagpur: The truce between Wardha Vruksha Bachao Samiti (WVBS) and the public works department was broken after two months when a JCB machine was deployed by the contractor to fell over 30 years old neem and shirish trees near Bapu Kuti on Wardha-Sevagram road on Sunday.
The WVBS alleged the trees were felled at the behest of former sarpanch of Sevagram Vijay Aaglawe.Also, video clips of Aaglawe engaged in a wordy duel with the samiti members went viral on social media. Aaglawe was unavailable for comments.
There are at least 1,500 big trees in the 12km stretch between Dattapur and Sevagram. Of these, PWD plans to fell 200 trees and 78 trees have already been felled. Most of these trees were planted during the freedom struggle when Mahatma Gandhi stayed in the Bapu Kuti.
“Two days ago, the former sarpanch had dropped a hint that trees on the said road will be felled and it came to be true when the contractor felled two big trees,” said WVBS member and ecologist Alok Bang.
High drama prevailed as there were heated arguments between the ex-sarpanch and green activists.
On Sunday, many youths, including teachers and students, staged protests and sat on a dharna near the felled trees. The protesters included Adwait Deshpande, Shuchi Sinha, Praful Nagose, Prashant Nagose, Manoj Bhoyar and several others.
The green activists called PWD superintending engineer Sushma Sakharwade, who asked her deputy Mahesh Mathurkar to lodge an FIR about the tree felling. Sevagram police formally registered FIR against an unidentified person, despite knowing well who felled the trees, said the activists.
“We lodged a complaint with the police, but they refused to register our FIR saying two FIRs cannot be lodged for the same offence. The cops also asked us to call off the protest as model code of conduct was in force for gram panchayat elections,” said Bang.
Pedagogist Suchi Sinha says, “The claim of felling 200 trees is an eyewash. During an extensive tree survey conducted by WVBS on the 12km stretch for the road widening, we documented 1,220 trees. Of these, 168 trees have suffered critical root damage, 154 trees had to endure regular cutting of branches due to unplanned development, 60 trees stand completely dried, presumably due to trauma suffered during or after the construction of the road. In the case of 327 trees, digging was done by machines within the critical root zone, severely impacting its survival and 189 trees have been harmed due to lack of precaution.”
WILL PWD PROTECT MAHATMA’S LEGACY?
PWD is implementing road-widening project between Wardha-Sevagram-Samudrapur-Girad-Umred (SH-326) up to Shedgaon, including Hamdapur junction to Wardha-Hinganghat (SH-328), and improvement of roads connecting tourist destination Bordharan under hybrid annuity mode
State’s high-powered committee headed by Ulhas Debadwar, PWD principal secretary, during a site visit on September 20, agreed to suggestions by WVBS to save trees on 12km Wardha-Sevagram road
The committee has not yet come out with a concrete plan to save trees, which are clandestinely being felled
Most of the trees planted during the freedom struggle when Mahatma Gandhi stayed in Bapu Kuti at Sevagram face the axe