More than 95 out of 403 fully grown tree species, planted in 1992, from Nagarjan police traffic point towards Circuit House Dimapur, were felled Monday, after two vendors were killed and six injured when two trees uprooted by gusty winds, fell on them on October 12 afternoon.
There had been other instances of uprooted trees nearly causing fatalities while in some, broken branches damaging power lines. The tree felling operation began October 17, as per an order issued by the Deputy Commissioner and chairman District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) Sachin Jaiswal on October 13.
On Monday, vehicular movement was restricted from Dhansiri Bridge to Nagarjan Police Point from 5 a.m. till 5 p.m. while power was also shut down from Naga Shopping Arcade (Supermarket), Circuit House areas and Bank Colony from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jaiswal told Nagaland Post that the district administration has deputed officers to supervise the operation and a full report was awaited till the time of filing this report.
He also said that public were barred from going to the area and vehicular movement restricted by traffic personnel along the entire stretch to ensure safety of the public. He informed that the forest department was supervising felling of trees on the stretch (Shopping Arcade) which is under the Development Authority of Nagaland. Jaiswal also said the administration was coordinating with all the agencies for executing the operation.
Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF) Vivika Sema informed Nagaland Post that there were more than 400 trees consisting of three species including eucalyptus, rain tress and Putranjiva which were planted around 1992.
He said the advisory given to the Forest department was to supervise the process of felling trees and sectioning them.
According to Sema since the department alone cannot handle the entire felling operation which require around 20 to 30 workers, use of portable electric sawing machines and other technical expertise, it was decided to give the entire responsibility to professionals.
He also admitted that there were minor glitches on the first day of the but expressed satisfaction that on the first day alone, 95 trees out of 403 were felled.
Sema said that the it was estimated that it would take five days for the completion of the work but in view of the fast-pace of work on the first day, it is presumed that the operation could be completed ahead of schedule.
The official informed that the entire process has been given to some environmental activists (NGO)– for cutting, sectioning and clearing the entire area. It was also learnt that the development of the area will be carried out by the NGO/environmental activists.
Since there was some miscommunication and lack of coordination between various departments, with no clear-cut directive, a senior district administration official informed that a meeting will be held on Tuesday to clear things out.
Meanwhile, some of the residents around Naga Shopping Arcade area expressed dismay that most of them could not move out of their homes due to the restriction imposed. A resident suggested that proper planning was required so that people were not affected to carry out their normal life.
Another resident said that the authorities should have cut down those trees that were posing threat to human lives rather than issuing a blanket order to bring down all trees. “If one has to bring down a tree, another tree should be planted, as trees greatly contribute to the environment,” he said.
In order to be accountable and transparent, he said every tree should be numbered and taken note of the quantity of log/timber. Once this is done, he said the log/timber sawed has to be auctioned and not sold randomly. All these are important procedures that the government has to follow, he added.