Why gasp for breath: Environmental activists say the trees axed along New Natham Road for road widening can be transplanted on the various government properties on this road. | Photo Credit: R_ASHOK more-in “When even a school student knows trees are the lungs of a city, how come government officials do not realise this,” wonders Sridhar Nedunchezhiyan, an environmental activist. Like him, there are many others who are worried about felling trees along New Natham Road for widening it. “If the very purpose of widening a road is to meet the demand of increasing vehicular traffic, more wheels means more carbon dioxide. Only trees will save people from inhaling carbon emission,” he said. “That trees inhale carbon dioxide and release oxygen is a fact even a child knows. But the officials of the State and Central governments do not seem to have learnt it. Or they just don’t bother about it,” he said. The National Highways Authority of India plans to widen the 32-km-long Madurai-Natham New Natham Road to make it a four-lane highway. The stretch between Indian Oil Corporation Junction at Tallakulam and Chettikulam beyond Oomachikulam would get Madurai’s first elevated highway. As part of the groundwork, the NHAI has started felling small and big trees on both sides of the road. “We know felling trees is inevitable for widening the road. But, all that we want from the government is to make efforts to transplant most of them. For, the trees are home to birds, reptiles and insects,” said S. Baburaj, a retired Associate Professor of Botany. Many of the trees along this road are more than 100 years old. “Plants are the only natural agents that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. When many sapling planting drives in the past have failed, the only way to protect the health of people is by saving the existing trees, more so along the highway, where carbon emission is set to go up,” he said. This road has many banyan, pipal, jamun, neem and pungai trees. The activist said at least 2,800 trees, including smaller ones, would face the axe. “Transplanting trees is very much possible. Even the district administration recently transplanted well-grown trees on the Collectorate premises to enable construction of additional buildings. Why not this be done for trees on the highway?,” asked E. Gubendran, another activist. The volunteers have approached several government agencies with this idea, but have not get any positive response so far. “We will meet the new Collector in this regard. The Corporation officials say this project does not come under their purview. The Forest department claims they could not do anything but allow cutting of trees as it is a government project,” Mr. Nedunchezhiyan said. The trees have been chopped off from the ground up. “We believe the stumps still have life with their roots intact under the soil. If the government can use earth movers to dig around the trees carefully and transplant them, they will spring back to life,” N. Karthikeyan, a youth with environmental concern, said. For this, the government does not have to transport the dug-out trees for long. All along the first one km stretch of the road, only government lands such as the Dean’s quarters, judges’ quarters, TNEB quarters, PWD quarters, camp offices of Collector and police officials, and government quarters in Race Course Colony and DRO colony, Armed Reserve ground and TSP ground are located. With huge spaces available, the trees would have to be moved only for short distances. “All that we want is only a political will among the officials. It is going to cost them very negligible amount, considering the huge cost of the project and the positive effects the trees will provide,” opined K.P. Kalidoss, another activist. As per High Court guidelines, for every tree chopped, at least 10 saplings should be planted. But, till now, no such thing has happened on Tirunelveli, Tiruchi and Thoothukudi highways where hundreds of trees were felled. “The Forest department, a few years back, boasted of a major drive to plant 6,000 saplings along the national highways in southern districts. If it is true, we should see at least a small number of trees along the highways around the city that have grown taller than an adult. But, unfortunately, it is only on the paper,” said Mr. Nedunchezhiyan. Quoting a a recent study, Mr. Karthikeyan said respiratory problems among people of Chennai have doubled in the last two decades owing to increased carbon emission. Madurai will face the same problem if it loses its green cover, he said. These volunteers, under the banner ‘Mannin Marangal Pathugappu Iyakkam,’ a movement to protect trees, have taken up the cause and are enlightening people living in villages where the NHAI plans to fell trees. An NHAI official said all efforts were being made to save the trees. “Out of the 32-km stretch up to Natham, the four-lane comes along the existing alignment only for 20 km and it will have bypass for the rest of the stretch where not many trees are there,” he said. “Though there is no such provision in the contract, we are considering transplanting all possible trees. We have planned to minimise felling as much as possible,” he said.

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