Joint survey counts 6,900 trees at Ajni Vann
   Date :11-Jan-2021

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By Kaushik Bhattacharya :
 
NHAI had estimated that only 1,940 trees will be felled for IMS project in Ajni Railway Colony Tree species count is next step
 
 
The tree counting process by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) of Ajni Railway Colony has proved the claims of NHAI wrong here on Saturday. NHAI claimed that 1,940 trees were going to be felled for the Inter-Modal Station (IMS) project at Ajni, while environmental activists and citizens have estimated that more than 7,000 small and big trees of the locality would be sacrificed for this project. Meanwhile, after strong criticism from the environment activists over the damage to be caused to environment for the project, NHAI and NMC conducted a joint tree survey at Ajni Railway Colony and found that more than 6,900 trees are going to be felled for this massive project.
 

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 Hundreds such small trees are there in the premises of the
Railway quarters that are some 2-3 years old. (Pic: Satish Raut)
 
 
The one-month-long tree counting process of the area is now over and there are about 6,900 trees to be felled for IMS project,” Amol Chourpagar, Garden Superintendent, NMC told ‘The Hitavada’. “To maintain transparency in the project we conducted the survey. Now we are going to count the species of trees with the help of experts,” said Chourpagar. However, claimed the Regional Office of NHAI, the IMS project will be executed in accordance with Environmental Impact Assessment and only 1,940 trees are going to be sacrificed for it. “We are happy that our claims were right and now the authorities will have to re-think before sacrificing such a huge amount of trees for the project,” said environment activist Anasuya Kale Chhabrani. She said, “The number is very huge for 44 acre area which is calculated for the first phase only.
 
The remaining phases will claim more trees in future.” NHAI earlier stated that the proposed IMS will also save 16,31,737 litres of fuel and prevent 75,65,196 kgs of Carbon Dioxide emissions over a period of up to year 2050, Kaustav Chatterjee, Founder, Green Vigil Foundation said, “The claims of NHAI have changed now. They have to calculate the oxygen transfer and carbon absorption of each species. After this calculation only they will be able to talk about how much the project is going to save carbon emission in future.” Green Vigil Foundation urged NHAI to conduct tree survey and calculate carbon absorption to maintain environment viability. NHAI also must have to come in black and white about the project for saving of carbon emission,” Chatterjee added. The Environmental Impact Assessment of the IMS project claimed that it would reduce pollution in future as people will use public transport instead of their own vehicles.
 
When we talked with NHAI Project Manager Abhijit Jichkar on this tree survey, he said, “Our claim of 1,940 trees was based on our survey that we conducted two years ago and it was on the parameters of Forest Departments. The recent one was on the rules of NMC which also calculated the 2-3 years old trees that we left in previous survey.” The IMS is proposed to be constructed at Ajni. For the purpose, 44.4 acres of Indian Railway land adjacent to Railway tracks will be acquired. The IMS is proposed to handle over 3 lakh passengers per day. It will have bus stand, Railway station, and a Metro station in the proposed vicinity. As per NHAI, the project has been taken up as Nagpur Railway Station is heavily congested and has limited scope of expansion.