Over 60 pc trees, indigenous ones, will be saved: Nashik commissioner on Sadhu Gram row

Facing vociferous protests against the planned felling of trees in Nashik city for Kumbh Mela, a senior official on Tuesday said over 60 per cent of the more than 1,700 surveyed trees will be spared.No tree that stood on the land in 2015, when the last Kumbh Mela was held in Nashik, will be removed, Nashik municipal commissioner Manisha Khatri told PTI here.

Facing vociferous protests against the planned felling of trees in Nashik city for Kumbh Mela, a senior official on Tuesday said over 60 per cent of the more than 1,700 surveyed trees will be spared.

No tree that stood on the land in 2015, when the last Kumbh Mela was held in Nashik, will be removed, Nashik municipal commissioner Manisha Khatri told PTI here. The old, indigenous trees will be spared, she added. Civil society members are up in arms against the municipal corporation's reported plan to cut down more than 1700 trees in Tapovan area to build a `Sadhu Gram' for the visiting religious leaders ahead of Kumbh Mela which will begin in October 2026.

''I will be able to save more than 60-70 per cent trees. All indigenous trees will be saved, all big trees, old trees will be saved,'' Khatri said, speaking on the sidelines of an event here.

Any tree that stood on the land in 2015 when Nashik last hosted the Kumbh gathering will not be cut, she assured, adding that only a ''minimum number'' of trees which are not endemic and have come up after 2015 will be removed.

A survey was undertaken to find out the number of trees, but the 'x' markings did not mean that all such trees were selected for removal, she said. Google data from 2015 shows that the area was ''clean'', and the growth which happened afterwards was more a ''parasite invasion of foreign species'', the commissioner claimed.

''What they (protestors) are saying, that a decision was taken to fell the trees, is wrong. We only conducted a survey and have done a layout plan. As per the layout, whatever trees can be saved or can be transplanted, we will definitely be doing that,'' Khatri said.

The patch of land where there are trees will house a camp for the sadhus, and traditionally, the start of the march for every 'shahi snan' during the Kumbh Mela begins from this place, she said.

Three main 'akharas' of sadhus are stationed on this patch of land during Kumbh Mela, Khatri said.

Social media is helping amplify the protest while the civic body's clarifications are not reaching enough people, the commissioner rued.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)