Aurangabad: In order to widen the Aurangabad-Sillod Road, the public works department (PWD) has felled thousands of trees over the last one year, allege environment activists adding that the PWD has also violated the environmental norms to carry out the job.In order to widen the road on the 150-km stretch from Harsul T-point to Jalgaon, the PWD started cutting trees in November last year. “The work was initiated from Sillod and over time it has felled thousands of trees,” residents of villages along the route state.PWD junior engineer SJ Shukla, who had earlier informed that 1,600 trees were marked to be cut from Aurangabad to Jalgaon as part of the project, on Tuesday said that the tree cutting was unavoidable but were cut with necessary permissions.“We have cut trees following permissions from the district collector and forest department. However, we will plant three saplings against every single tree cut,” Shukla said.However, the activists are not amused by his assurance. We for Environment’s Meghna Badjate said that no efforts to save the trees were made.“The rules state that for every tree of phycus species cut, 10 trees should be planted. We will write to the ministry of environment of state government to inform them about the violation of norms,” she said.Meanwhile, Kishor Pathak, an environment expert, said that the tree planting has to be done before and not after the trees are cut. “Trees could have been easily saved at Sillod Road by taking the trees in between the road like they have done in Nasik, Pune, Amrawati and Nagpur” he said.Environment law expert Hemant Chajjed said that the tree cutting is illegal as the land belongs to the forest department. “According to the Forest Conservation Act, if forest department land has to be modified into road, the approval must be taken from the government of India,” he said.

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