Bhopal: Residents stop tree felling in park in city

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A video went viral on social media wherein few workers were seen cutting trees in a park on Sunday. Soon, the residents gathered there to stop deforestation for construction.

More than a dozen of trees were cut down on Monday to clear the area for construction of a shopping complex in Om Nagar area of Kolar. Bhopal Municipal Corporation is building a shopping complex on its vacant lands and old buildings in the city. At present, shopping complexes are under construction at more than a dozen places including New Market, Bairagarh, Laxmi Talkies, Bal Vihar, Shahjahanabad Old Workshop, Arif Nagar and Ratibad.

When the construction workers started cutting trees, the residents gathered and demanded a permit for razing them down. The workers showed the permit, leaving residents perplexed as the trees were up to 10 years old and green.

After the video went viral on social media, area MLA Rameshwar Sharma visited the site and assured the residents that trees will not be felled. The residents asked him to take action against the people who had already cut down trees in the park.

District Aam Aadmi Party vice president Pradeep Khandelwal who had uploaded the video on social media, said, “At about 11 am, workers reached Om Nagar and started measuring vacant land of 3X75 square feet reserved for the park. Before people could understand anything, they started cutting trees. More than a dozen trees were cut.