Saving trees has always been important but in times of accelerating climate change and related environmental problems this has become even more important.

Therefore, it is shocking that thousands of trees have been destroyed and are threatened even though this loss was clearly avoidable. It is even more disturbing that this is often taking place in ecologically vulnerable regions which can least afford such serious loss.

Advertisement

The vast Bundelkhand region spread over 13 districts of two states – Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh – is one that has experienced serious droughts and water scarcity from time to time and where deforestation has been reported as an important cause of man-induced water scarcity in officially supported studies.

Surely, then, any large-scale felling of trees should be avoided. However, according to official data over 200,000 have been felled already for the Bundelkhand Expressway project.

This has been called a non-priority and non-essential project on which massive funds should not have been spent when other urgent priorities remain unaddressed. Over 200,000 more trees are threatened in the Chattarpur district of this region by a controversial mining project.

Deeply disturbing as such massive loss of trees is, all this pales in comparison to the threatened loss of over two million trees by the KenBetwa Link Project.

This loss of trees is likely to occur largely in the Panna reserve area, thereby destroying one of the very few remaining green belts in the parched region.

According to some estimates, the loss of trees may be even higher. What is more, this project based on the construction of a dam and a 250 km long canal to take the water of Ken River to Upper Betwa basin has faced strong criticism for over two decades by eminent experts as well as local people for lack of viability and for other important reasons.

Indeed, such questions are being increasingly asked not just in the Bundelkhand region but in the context of several other regions as well. For instance, take the most ecologically crucial Himalayan region which also happens to be badly endangered.

Maintaining the remaining tree and forest cover is one of the most important ways of protecting Himalayan ecology which is of great importance for a vast part of the country and the sub-continent. But still, we find a lot of treefelling taking place year after year.

If we just count the trees felled or threatened for highway construction and widening, it adds up to several hundred thousand trees. While a part may be difficult to avoid, a significant part is avoidable by more careful planning.

Several people and organisations have pointed out that excessive widening that may not really be needed is responsible for a lot of these felled or endangered trees. Lack of adequate care is responsible for many smaller trees being lost or damaged while cutting a big tree is another factor.

Then there are projects which are just not needed. One recent example is that of the Mussoorie Bypass tunnel project (Uttarakhand) aimed at easing traffic congestion by sacrificing nearly 3,000 oak, deodar and other trees, apart from disrupting natural water conservation systems in a crucial hill range which divides the Ganga and Yamuna river systems.

Surely there can be safer and less costly ways of sorting out traffic problems. In fact, in such cases local people including drivers often say that if they are consulted at an early stage, they could come up with many practical suggestions of easing traffic at much lower financial and ecological cost.

Recently the venerable leader of the Chipko movement, Sunderlal Bahuguna , who had contributed so much to protecting trees and forests in the Himalayan region, particularly in Uttarakhand, passed away.

Governments paid high tributes to him, which is very good, but will they honour his deepest commitment to giving high priority to saving trees and forests while taking important development decisions? Since the Chipko Movement in some parts of the Himalayan region and later the Appiko Movement in some southern parts led to a moratorium on commercial felling of green trees over vast areas for extended periods, many escape routes have been found by powerful interests to continue large-scale felling, often in the name of speeding up development.

Such reports have been pouring in from many parts of the country and the trend is of further acceleration in recent times. Audits are not often available of how the thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of felled trees were disposed of and who made big money in this.

Pressures of such powerful interests who seek fortunes from such thoughtless destruction of trees should be resisted and all possible efforts should be made to minimize further destruction of trees and forests.

The urgency of this has clearly increased in times of climate change, but unfortunately this urgency is not reflected in many ruthless and arbitrary decisions being taken. Instead of the greatest care being taken to avoid axing of trees, in arbitrary thoughtless ways several trees have been cut or have been marked for cutting. Urgent action is needed so that avoidable, large-scale loss of trees can still be prevented in several parts of the country.

The writer, a journalist and author, is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril and Protecting Earth For Children.