The Environment Ministry in 2010-11 had rejected an expressway project along the Upper Ganga Canal due to the potential ecological and biodiversity damage it could cause, revealed submissions made to the National Green Tribunal in a case relating to the proposed Kanwar Marg.
In a suo motu case, the NGT is examining a similar road project, known as Kanwar Marg. The details of the old case have been brought to light in an affidavit filed before the NGT by environmental activists and a former BJP corporator from Raj Nagar, Ghaziabad, who have filed an intervention application in the matter.
The 111-km road proposed by the Uttar Pradesh government will be built along the right branch of the Upper Ganga Canal from Murad Nagar to Purkaji, near Uttarakhand. The proposed Kanwar Marg, that will pass through Ghaziabad, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar, will need diversion of 222.98 hectare of protected forest land and involve cutting of 1,12,722 trees.
“An Upper Ganga Canal Expressway along the Right Bank of Upper Ganga Canal was conceived by the Uttar Pradesh government in the districts in 2010-11. However, in view of the grave ecological and biodiversity hazards that the said project was assessed to bring about in the region, the Ministry of Environment & Forest had rejected the proposal for forest diversion and tree cutting submitted by the state government,” the affidavit said.
The applicants relied upon a site inspection report of the Deputy Conservator of Forest, Regional Office (Central Zone) Lucknow in June 2010. “There are already two roads which are connecting Ghaziabad, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar with Uttarakhand viz. NH-58 and Kawar road on the left bank of the Upper Ganga Canal. These two roads are also under improvement by widening of the roads…if constructed, the expressway would cause a lot of damage to the vegetation all along the canal and would definitely disturb the habitat of wildlife... all along the canal,” the DCF’s report had stated.
The applicants claimed that during a site visit between June-end and July, they noticed massive cutting, felling and uprooting of thousands of trees using JCB machines. “After felling and uprooting the trees… the lands were levelled for the 4-6 lane road... on the vegetated right bank stretch along the canal.”
The applicants argued that large-scale felling of trees along the canal would impact water availability and agriculture in Western UP. The state denied the applicants’ allegation of tree felling and submitted before the NGT that about 3,000 trees have been saved from felling till date due to reduction in road width.
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2024-07-27T00:20:19Z dg43tfdfdgfd