Hundreds of trees uprooted in monsoon floods in Shimla

Shima:

Monsoon rains, floods and landslides have uprooted hundreds of trees in the northern Indian city of Shimla. A large number of almost 1,000 Deodar trees have been uprooted, more than 500 dangerous trees have been removed and almost 800 of these dangerous trees are still pending in the Shimla Municipal Corporation’s dangerous tree list pending data from candidacy.

Environmentalists, local residents, former mayors and deputy mayors of Shimla city have accused the authorities of illegally felling trees in the name of cutting dangerous trees.

Environmentalist and former Deputy Mayor of Shimla Municipal Corporation, Tikender Singh Panwar, said there was a need to secure five times as many plantations from felled trees.

“The question is who made these trees dangerous? We made them vulnerable because human activity and construction led to erosion of the land. Some people try to cut down trees in the name of dangerous trees” , said Tikender Singh Panwar.

“We have to make sure that no buildings are built in the areas where these trees are removed. We have to make sure that the green cover is increased and that there is a need for systemic forestry in the city,” said he added.

“As we are talking about the resilience index of the city, the temperature will rise which will be dangerous. Not even a single person has died due to the uprooting of trees in Shimla. Now with the retreat of the monsoon “We are reducing the green cover and as scientists say, we have to increase the green cover,” said Tikender Singh Panwar.

Former Mayor of Shimla Municipality, Sanjay Chauhan said, “The beauty of Shimla lies in the greenery of forests, oaks and also Deodar trees. The British also chose Shimla and built good important buildings.

“Since then, the forest rights belong to Shimla Municipal Corporation under the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Act 1994. We learned from 2012 to 2017 that the forest right belongs to Shimla Municipal Corporation. The mayor, as president, must constitute the tree. authority committee,” Sanjay Chauhan said.

“We used to remove dangerous trees as requested and recommended by the committee so that the uprooting would not happen during the rainy and snowy season. The uprooting of trees this year is due to poor management The tree authority committee has not been constituted even six months after Shimla Municipal Corporation was elected to power,” the former Shimla Municipal Corporation mayor said.

“Some influential people try to cut down trees; we demand that action be taken against those who do so. Under the law, there is a provision that it is necessary to plant five trees if a tree is cut down because it is dangerous.” A white paper must be brought to this effect to show how many trees have been uprooted and how many have been removed. There is a committee of experts from the Department of Forestry, Horticulture and other experts who recommend and remove these trees. Some people are trying to cut down these trees illegally and this needs to be looked at seriously,” Chauhan added.

Shimla Municipal Corporation Mayor Surender Chauhan said thousands of trees were uprooted and removed during the subsequent rains and floods in Shimla city. He said action would be taken against those who illegally fell trees.

He also said that care will be taken to ensure that no cards are passed for the construction of buildings in areas where trees are felled in the hazardous category. He also said that the municipal corporation aims to plant more than 5,000 trees for the next week to compensate for the trees that have been felled.

“Due to landslides and floods, thousands of trees have been uprooted in Shimla. We are ensuring that trees are not cut down illegally. We have issued an advisory in two cases and action will be taken against those who cut down trees in the name of dangerous trees. We will ensure that no construction plans are passed in such an area,” said the mayor of the Shimla Municipal Corporation.

“We are starting a week-long planting campaign with the goal of planting over 5,000 trees. We will try to plant 10,000 trees in the next week,” Surender Chauhan said.

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)