The Uttarakhand government has halted the felling of 4,369 trees for the proposed Rishikesh highway widening after sustained protests. The pause has intensified calls for an alternative route amid concerns over forest loss and wildlife deaths.
The Uttarakhand government has temporarily halted the felling of 4,369 trees for the proposed Rishikesh highway widening project following widespread public protests, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami announced.
The decision comes after days of demonstrations by environmentalists, local residents and social organisations, who have opposed the large-scale tree cutting in the Ranipokhari-Rishikesh forest division.
Protesters have been demanding that the government suspend the tree-felling exercise and explore an alternative alignment for the highway to minimise environmental damage. The state government has now put the project on hold while it reviews the concerns raised by the public.
The issue also drew political attention on Friday when Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi met a delegation of campaigners associated with the forest conservation movement while returning from an event in Dehradun.
During the meeting, the delegation briefed Gandhi on the proposed project and its environmental implications. Gandhi assured them that he would raise the matter in Parliament, according to the protesters.
Activists argue that widening the highway at the cost of thousands of trees would cause irreversible ecological damage and have urged authorities to adopt an alternative route that would preserve the forest cover.
Concerns over the project’s impact on wildlife have also intensified after a female sambar deer was killed in a collision with an unidentified vehicle near the highway in Rishikesh’s Barkot Range on Friday morning.
Protesters said the incident highlights the risks already posed by traffic in the area and warned that a wider highway could increase vehicle speeds and lead to more wildlife fatalities.
Meanwhile, a video featuring a woman participating in the protest has gone viral on social media. In the video, she is seen making an emotional appeal to workers engaged in cutting trees, urging them to stop.