PrashantNews
When social activist Anup Nautiyal on Sunday asked a gathering of Doonites if they want the Uttarakhand government to cut over 3000 trees to reach Rishikesh 15 minutes earlier from Dehradun, they answered in unison with a loud “no”.
This was the scene from a protest rally held not very far away from the Chief Minister’s residence at Garhi Cant in Dehradun with an iconic picture of top Chipko leader Gaura Devi forming the backdrop.
A large number of Doonites on Sunday morning held the rally in front of Centrio Mall to protest what they called indiscriminate felling of trees in the Doon Valley which witnessed unprecedented temperatures during the last summer.
Led by environmentalist Ravi Chopra and social activists Anup Nautiyal and Kamala Pant, the protesters made a clarion call asking the government to stop cutting trees rampantly in the name of development. Dehradun had recorded its highest temperature of 43 degree C in last May which was also perhaps the longest ever heat spell.
Last year also, a large number of people had organized a protest march forcing Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to shelve the widening of the CM’s residence road in Garhi Cant area.
The anger has simmered again in form of Sunday’s morning protest march which culminated into an impressive rally in front the mall.”We should continue such protests till the decision to cut thousands of trees is shelved,” said Kamala Pant.
Addressing the rally, Chopra said according to his own estimate, nearly one lakh trees would vanish from Dehradun which include nearly 25000 trees which have already been felled.
“We have gathered today to protest the government’s decision to cut approximately 25000 to 30000 trees for the development purpose. I thank everybody who joined us to make the rally successful,” said Nautiyal after the rally.
I join this movement to oppose unnecessary cutting of trees.