By IANS,
Greater Noida : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Greater Noida next month would prove expensive for the city’s green cover, environmentalists said here Tuesday.
On the pretext of making arrangements for the prime minister’s visit to Expo Mart next month for the Asian Development Bank summit, the Greater Noida Authority has reportedly cut around 100-125 trees near Pari Chowk.
Environmentalists claim that the trees were cut without the sanction of the district forest department.
According to environmentalists, trees were cut in the “green belt area”, which is exclusively reserved for trees.
“On the pretext of widening an already wide road, trees were cut in the green belt area without changing the land use, as green belts are well laid out in the master plans of any city. The tree cutting was illegal,” said Vikrant Tongad, a local environmentalist.
Tongad has complained to the district magistrate and divisional forest officer about the felling of trees.
However, the district forest department claimed that they had permission to cut the trees.
“The authority had cut just 25 trees. They were replanted,” said B. Prabhakar, divisional forest officer.