Forests and Environment Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh on Tuesday informed the Assembly that a total of 8,140 trees have been felled for the Bhubaneswar-Puri expansion work currently going on ahead of lord Jagannath’s Nabakalebar festival in Puri.
Arukh said this while replying to a question putt by Pravat Ranjan Biswal and additional questions put by other members. He a programme has been undertaken to plant 81,400 trees as a measure of compensatory forestation. Similarly, the Minister informed that 1,025 trees have been cut against 1,068 trees identified for expansion of the Cuttack-Paradip State Highway No-12.
Arukh said a total of 33.46 lakh saplings have been planted in 10,229-row-kms in the last five years between 2010-11 and 2014-15 and Rs 60.60 crore has been spent for the purpose. The Minister informed that trees are cut for expansion of various categories of roads after due approval of concerned authorities under law.