PrashantNews
After Uttarakhand, the green movement has reached Telangana where protests are rising against the rampant felling of trees near the University of Hyderabad.
This has prompted Anoop Nautiyal, a Dehradun-based green crusader, to lend his full support to students and teachers who are protesting against the Telangana government’s decision to clear the 400-acre green cover near the University of Hyderabad (UoH).
Nautiyal has asked the Congress government in Telengana to immediately cancel its decision. “We all need to come together to preserve nature in the face of such brutal, commercially driven onslaughts,” said Nautiyal. He is not alone who is supporting the green movement. Scores of people in Dehradun and other places in the hill state have been taking out protest marches on the issue of preserving green cover for a very long time.
Nautiyal’s support came as police dispersed the latest round of protests by the varsity’s students and teachers against the government’s action, part of a plan to auction off the land in Kancha Gachibowli area for the development of IT parks.
Since Sunday afternoon, more than 50 earthmoving vehicles have been clearing the trees and other vegetation on the land, home to several species of flora and fauna.
The Supreme Court and the High Court have already stayed the move to clear green cover.
The petitioners argued that the land is “forest-like”, even though it is not documented as a forest, as it contains features such as vegetation, rock formations, wildlife and lakes. It is a catchment area for the lakes, they argued, adding that the razing of such a “forest-like” land was a violation of two Supreme Court judgments, the Forest Conservation Act and Forest Conservation rules.
The state’s Advocate General, however, argued that this land has never been forest land and that it was transferred to a private sports management company in 2003. The AG said the land had always been used for industrial purposes, and hence, is industrial land.
Meanwhile, civil society members, environmentalists and ecologists demanded that the state withdraw its decision to auction the land.