By Dr Vinod Sharma
In the name of making Dehradun a smart city, it’s losing its original beauty. Development is becoming very costly for citizens of Dehradun city. One main reason for losing the beauty of Dehradun is the rampant cutting of trees in the name of road widening. See the fate of Sahstradhara road. All big trees giving shadows and a good amount of oxygen have been cut in one stroke. Already, Dehradun has witnessed its consequence this summer when mercury touched 43.3 degree C, a record-breaking temperature for the state capital.
Now we can’t boast for the beauty and weather of Dehradun for which it was famous.
Another disaster is erosion of footpaths and covering of roadside drains with high level footpath. This has resulted in flooding of all Dehradun roads, which was a rare phenomenon in the past.
There is no clear vision and planning. Forget about execution of schemes.
One small suggestion for maintaining the greenery of Dehradun is that all citizens should be allowed to plant at least one tree. If they don’t have space to plant, they should sponsor a tree through NGO or any government agencies. But here, all citizens who are planting trees should also be given the right to cut the same tree. At present, nobody can cut its own planted tree without getting permission from the forest department. At present, even the owner of the tree cannot sell the woods after cutting trees. It again requires plenty of permissions. Such policies are discouraging people from planting trees.
We should make policies to encourage people to plant trees with some incentives.
Otherwise, the time is not very far when Dehradun may look like a desert. In such a scenario, we would be telling stories of Dehradun to our grand children that once upon a time there was a beautiful city named Dehradun with wide green cover and nice weather.
About author: Dr Vinod Sharma has retired as Group General Manager (GGM) in ONGC. Having wide experience in oil exploration, drilling and production, Dr Sharma has worked at various senior positions and travelled widely abroad.