Pune: NCP-led Chipko Movement against proposed cutting of 6000 trees for riverfront project

Leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday staged a protest in front of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Garden on Jungli Maharaj Road in Pune. The protest was held against the alleged proposed cutting of 6000 trees for the Riverfront Development Project in the city. During the protest, leaders of the party even hugged the trees on JM road. 

The former Pune mayor and NCP Pune President Prashant Jagtap spearheaded the protest. 

The Pune Municipal Corporation will plant around 65,000 trees of local species for the 6,000 trees affected by the Riverfront Development Project in the city.

Several environmental activists and political parties have been opposing this decision with Aaditya Thackeray becoming the recent addition joining the movement among others. Recently on March 21, hundreds of citizens turned up near Bund Garden to oppose the River Front beautification project. He appealed to the authorities that they must hear out the environmentalists and urban planners raising these issues fairly and take a firm call. Thackeray was at the forefront of the Aarey movement in Mumbai which became a political issue between the current Shide-Fadnavis and Maha Vikas Aghadi governments. 

In order to deal with current issues of the inaccessibility of rivers to residents, Pune Municipal Corporation has instigated a comprehensive project - Mula, Mutha and Mula-Mutha Riverfront Development Project in the entire Pune Municipal corporation area.