Road widening: Huge mismatch of trees in Akola-Washim section

Nagpur: If recent illegal felling of over 100 trees for road expansion work by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) near Akola raised serious concern, RTI reveals mismatch of over 3,000 trees between the Akola-Medshi-Washim-Hingoli border.
According to information received under RTI by green activist Jaydeep Das from NHAI, in the 100km section from Akola-Medshi-Washim to Hingoli border, which is being expanded to four-lane, there were 7,402 trees.
On the contrary, the Arboriculture register maintained by the public works department (PWD) makes a mention of over 10,000 trees in the said section. Arboriculture is the record of cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, etc. The state highway was handed over to NHAI a couple of years ago.
“There is a mismatch of over 3,000 trees. There can be only two reasons for the mismatch — either these trees have been taken on record or must have been clandestinely stolen over the years. There is a possibility that less number of trees have been recorded to lower the evaluation. If more number of trees are counted, more money has to be paid towards compensatory plantation,” Das alleged.
NHAI officials, who did not want to be quoted, said, “One of the reasons for the mismatch could be due to internal roads which are not taken into account while preparing a DPR. These trees must be falling on internal roads. We take into account bypass roads.”
However, Sheikh Mohammed Sheikh Makbul aka Munna, founder of Sarpamitra Nisarga Samvardhan Bahuuddeshia Sanstha, Akola, said he had lodged a complaint with chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and top authorities for various flaws in the counting of trees in the said stretch. The state government has already ordered an inquiry.
Even NHAI project director Rakesh Jawade on December 17, had written to Akola SP about the theft of 11 trees but Munna says the complaint was just a formality ostensibly to show that NHAI cared for trees. “NHAI officials did not insist on filing an FIR in the theft of trees,” he said.
The existing road with right of way (ROW) of 30 metres from the centre had a good canopy of trees, mostly neem planted by the British. When the road was with PWD it had counted over 10,000 trees in 30 metre ROW in the 100km patch. This did not include trees in forest patches.
Munna says NHAI’s tree number also doesn’t include trees on land acquired from the farmers. That number may be also over 5,000 but these trees have not been taken on record either by the forest department or NHAI as per the complainant. The evaluation of these trees was not done by the respective tree officers.
Das says, “In the said road section, forest area falls between Patur-Medshi (8km). Forest land diversion proposal is pending with the forest department. As permission on forest stretches has not been granted yet, NHAI should not have started work on non-forest land creating a fiat accompli situation.”
“Even as roads are widened in the entire district, there is no talk of wildlife mitigation measures. There are leopards, and other wild animals in the Patur forest but NHAI road widening has no plan to take mitigation steps,” adds Munna.