Greater Noida: Many eyebrows were raised when few officials of Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) carried out deforestation at the central verge opposite Jaypee Greens to make a U-turn.
The department is cutting age-old trees and removing the plantation from the central verge located opposite the Narmada Gate in Jaypee greens to construct a U-turn. As per them, the action was taken to improve the traffic congestion which frequently happens near Swaran Nagri.
Vikrant Tongad, an environment enthusiast from Greater Noida told CitySpidey that people saw the trees being cut on first day of the new year. “They informed the higher officials about the chopping of trees and it was stopped. But, the chopping activities again resumed on Thursday as JCB machines were seen at the spot,” he said.
He said that they have again approached the authority about the chopping and the matter is being investigated. Tongad questioned the decision to carry out deforestation for making a U-turn. “Is it justified to chop trees for wrongly designed U-turn?” he asked.
As far as the facts are concerned, Greater Noida has been struggling with bad air quality. The air quality index (AQI) was as high as 200 on Thursday. It is considered 'unhealthy'. In such a scenario, deforestation is certainly not a sane thing to do.
Already a lot of deforestation has taken place within the city to construct swanky malls and high rises.
CitySpidey tried reaching the concerned authority to know about the matter but all our calls went unanswered.
