Dehradun: Uttarakhand high court has temporarily stopped the felling of more than 3,000 trees for the proposed four-lane road between Rishikesh and Bhaniawala and directed the govt to submit all necessary permits. An HC bench comprising Chief Justice G Narendar and Justice Ashish Naithani asked the petitioner to provide Google imagery of the corridor and affected road sections and scheduled the next hearing on March 21.
The court issued the order while hearing a public interest petition filed by Dehradun resident Reenu Paul. Her counsel told the court that the road expansion project threatens thousands of trees and passes through an elephant corridor. TOI on Wednesday reported that trees in the Shivalik Elephant Reserve were at risk due to the project aimed at improving connectivity to Jolly Grant airport in Dehradun. The existing road is a two-lane one.
The Shivalik Elephant Reserve had earlier received protection following HC intervention. Documents submitted to the court outline various elephant corridors in the northern region, including their GPS coordinates, length, and width. The Basant corridor is 30km long and 10km wide, the Chhedia corridor is 30km long and 0.5km wide, and the Dudhwa corridor spans 13km in length and 10km in width.
The corridor stretches 32km in length and 23km in width, with its forested areas also documented. The court has directed govt to present approvals under the Forest Conservation Act, details of any compensatory afforestation schemes, funds allocated for afforestation, and the environmental impact assessment report prepared by the relevant authority.
