What is Save Sahastradhara Trees movement?

Trees are being cut on Sahastradhara Road in Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand. To stop this, many local people started protesting there. The women hugged trees to save them from cutting. Meanwhile, the police also tried to remove these protesting women. These trees are being cut to widen the road. Uttrakhand HC okays felling of more than 2,000 trees.

#SaveSahastradharaTrees Protest

According to the local people, this road is already very wide, so there is no point in widening the road here. There is never any traffic on this road. If the government wants, other options can be considered. The women say they will not allow these trees to be cut under any circumstances. Already the administration has chopped down a lot of trees.

A video of the girls doing the Chipko movement to save trees in Dehradun is going viral on social media. Local people say that preparations are on to make Dehradun Delhi. This is not development but destruction, so many diseases have spread and global warming is also increasing, so what is the point of cutting trees. We do not want such a development that makes it difficult for us to breathe in the future.

What is Sahastradhara Road Project?

There is a plan to widen the 14 km 2-lane road from Jogiwala to Kirsali Chowk in Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand. This will make the journey from Dehradun to Mussoorie easy. Its purpose is to divert people going to Mussoorie from Rajpur Road in Dehradun, as traffic jams often occur here. Central Road Fund sanctioned Rs.77 crore for this project. More than 2000 trees will be cut due to this project, which is being opposed by the local people.

Dehradun-based activist Ashish Garg had filed a petition in the High Court to stop the project, stating that Sahastradhara is known for its good climate. If trees are cut here, then this area will become completely barren and this will create a heat island, which will make it difficult for people to live in the changing temperature due to climate change.

However, the Uttarakhand High Court had given the green signal to this project after hearing the government's side. The court asked the government to transplant 972 of the 2,057 trees to be cut and plantation should be done on the side of the widened road.

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