A 200-bigha mango orchard may turn into a mini township, violating a high court order

The problem

Bhadreshwar municipality has joined hands with a private promoter in large-scale tree felling to build a mini township with about 400 flats (picture by Pradip Sanyal). The site is a 200-bigha mango orchard in Mankundu, called Khan-er Bagan, near Chandernagore, about 40 km from Calcutta. When the felling of healthy trees was opposed by green bodies like us, the miscreants surreptitiously poisoned the trees and justified felling those. About 60 bighas are cordoned off for realty.

Long-term effect

We do not think that any environment impact assessment has been attempted. If the flats come up, not only will the ecosystem and the biodiversity in the area be affected, but the waste generated by the residential units may also prove to be a permanent problem.

Root of the trouble

During mid-1990s, Bhadreshwar municipality entered into a joint venture with M/s Mondal Construction Company Limited to build Lake City, the mini township, at Khan-er Bagan. That started the first large tree-felling exercise, apparently with permission from the Hooghly district tree-felling committee. There were around 300 large trees in the orchard. A case was filed by advocate Gitanath Ganguly in the high court. It passed an order in 1999 prohibiting felling of trees in the area.

Return of the trouble

The problem returned in 2005 when the state pollution control made an inspection. The board found a large number of mango trees were uprooted in clear violation of the high court order. The pollution control board’s record of proceedings, dated March 7, 2005, state the representatives of the district magistrate, Bhadreshwar municipality and even the occupiers of the land agreed not to make any attempt to fell trees as long as the court order stood. But tree-felling resumed after Biswajit Mukherjee, a senior law officer of the pollution control board who had tried to stop the menace was transferred.

Deaf ears

Our organisation and other green watchdog bodies like Chandernagore Paribesh Unnayan Samity have raised the issue with authorities repeatedly, but nothing substantial has come out. Even the complaint to the chief minister in December has not borne any result. My complaint to the state environment department, in 2006, has only been forwarded to the Bhadreshwar municipality, which has cited the same permission from the tree-felling committee, remaining silent about the high court order or the pollution control board directive.

Rahul Roy
You & I Foundation,
Narkelbagan, Khagrajole,
Chinsurah, Hooghly.
(Readers are invited to write to ttmetro@abpmail.com to highlight environment hazards in the city)