Members of the Citizens for Green Doon, along with concerned members of the Chukkuwala Residents Welfare Association, staged a protest against the administration’s plan to fell the peepal tree in front of Prabhat Cinema in Connaught Place. Speaking at the protest site, CFGD chief coordinator Dr Nitin Pandey said that the tree was merely three feet from the road edge and the Electricity Department had put in new electricity poles near the tree, much further towards the road center than the tree.
He said that barely 50 meters from the tree there were shops protruding into the road as much as the tree and felling the beautiful tree would not serve any purpose. It was also pointed out that the auto stand adjacent to the tree takes as much space as the tree and so removing the tree will not make any difference to the road width.
Further there are two nests of birds in the tree with eggs in it, so felling the tree would be tantamount to killing wild life under the Wildlife Protection Act and so was grossly illegal, he said.
Members of the Chukkuwala Residents Welfare Association pointed out the this was the only tree left along the entire stretch of Connaught Place and felling it too would render the entire area barren.
Bhim Singh a shopkeeper in the area said that he would not let the tree be cut and would oppose any move to fell it. It is pertinent to mention here that an online petition has already been started seeking that plan to axe the tree be