Trees being felled to widen the highway. Picture by Gautam Halder

Balurghat, Feb. 13: More than 7,500 trees — some of them more than 50 years old — have been uprooted for the construction and expansion of State Highway 10.

The 110-km stretch, from Gajol in Malda district to Hili in South Dinajpur, has been brought under the North-East Corridor project funded by the Asian Development Bank.

District forest officer A.K. Das said 6,527 trees belonging to the social forestry division and 1,005 trees belonging to the public works department have already been uprooted.

The proceeds from the sale have been deposited with the block fund.

“Some of the trees are more than 50 years old while others are close to 100. We have decided to plant five trees for each one felled. But that will not be possible as long as construction work continues because, in that case, the maintenance of the trees will be a problem,” Das said.

Expressing concern over the threat such large-scale tree felling may pose on ecology, Zilla Paribesh Suraksha Committee secretary Biswajit Basak has demanded that planting of saplings should be undertaken along with expansion work.

“The environment act stipulates that there should be 33 per cent forest cover. But in South Dinajpur, the forest area is hardly 15 per cent. The felling of so many trees at one go will destroy the fragile ecological balance. We shall soon take up the matter with the district administration,” Basak said.

Das agreed that the ecological balance would be affected due to felling of the trees. The completion of the project would take at least four years, official sources said.

Director of the Asian Development Bank-funded project S.P. Dutta could not be contacted.

Project chief engineer S.P. Mitra said the expansion work would begin soon. He assured that at least “five times the number of felled trees” would be planted and on both sides of the road.

According to zilla parishad sabhadhipati Mohiuddin Ahmed, the panchayats have been asked to spend 20 per cent of the Swarna Jayanti Swarojgar Yojna fund for planting trees.

The sabhadhipati said the panchayats are being told to take up the planting of saplings as soon as possible. “I will instruct them to take care of the saplings to ensure that a high percentage survive,” he said.