Environment activist raises concern over cutting of trees in Bihar’s Magadh University for PM’s meeting

A social worker and environment activist, who is credited to save holy river ‘Falgu’, Brijnandan Pathak on Monday raised the concern over cutting the trees to make space for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled public meeting on August 22, in Gaya ji district of Bihar.

The public meeting will be held in the premises of Magadh University where he will be marking his sixth visit to the election-bound State since January this year. He is expected to inaugurate infrastructure projects worth several hundred crore rupees followed by addressing a public meeting in Bodh Gaya.

Mr. Pathak has written a letter to Mr. Modi addressing the issue of damaging greenery in the name of PM’s public meeting and urged him to stop cutting the trees.

“Excellent work is being done under your leadership in the field of environment protection in the country. You have also started a programme like ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ (One tree in the name of mother) to encourage tree plantation. However, for your scheduled public meeting on August 22 at Magadh University campus, preparations have started and a large number of big and green trees have been cut down, chopped in the university campus,”Mr. Pathak said in the letter addressed to Mr. Modi.

He further said, “There was no need to cut down the trees for the smooth conduct of your public meeting. Even during the last Lok Sabha elections, trees were chopped off for your public meeting held at Gandhi Maidan in Gaya ji. Time again we come to know about cutting trees and uprooting it in the name of your public meeting from other places.”

Mr. Pathak requested the PM office to investigate the activities of cutting the trees in the name of public meetings and also put a stop to it in future.

Asked about how many trees have been cut down, Mr. Pathak told The Hindu that more than 25 trees have been cut down so far and many more before the final preparation of the venue.

Mr. Pathak asserted that if trees were about to fall or becoming danger to human life then there was no problem but these trees were healthy and some even 50 years old.

This is not the first time trees have been cut for the public meeting in Bihar. Even in the 2015 (October) assembly election, over hundred trees were chopped off and uprooted in the campus of B. P. Mandal University in Madhepura district to make space for the PM’s rally.

In March 2016, when PM was scheduled to launch several railway projects from Sultanpur village in Hajipur of Vaishali district where a stage was to be set up and the farmers were asked to cut the premature crop. However, after farmer’s protest, the district administration had to change the venue.

While speaking to The Hindu, Professor Shashi Pratap Shahi, Vice-Chancellor of Magadh University said that only 3 trees have been cut down. He also said that he will speak to Gaya ji DM with regard to this.