GUWAHATI, Nov 5: The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday issued notices to Assam government over its plans to cut dozens of century-old trees in Guwahati to make way for a flyover.
Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Mahesh Deka, Chandan Kumar Borgohain, and Jayanta Gogoi, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Vijay Bishnoi and Justice N Unni Krishnan Nair asked the state government to file its response by November 11.
Justice Bishnoi said the court wants to know whether there has been any move by the state government or any agency to protect the trees, which have been marked by the authorities for chopping.
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The government is constructing a four-lane 5.05-km-long flyover, the longest in the city, from Dighalipukhuri tank to Noonmati at a cost of Rs 852.68 crore. It is scheduled to be operational by 2026.
Prominent personalities, artists, students and residents hit the streets and criticised the BJP-led government for planning to chop around 25 trees, some as old as 200 years, along the banks of the iconic pond for the project.
“Looking to the issue raised in the PIL petition, which is of great importance, we deem it appropriate to issue notices to the respondents,” Justice Bishnoi said.
Advocate General Devajit Saikia opposed the issue of notices and said, “This is nothing but a publicity-seeking petition. The issue has already died down and if a notice is issued, a different kind of thing will come out in the media.”
Senior Advocate Kamal Nayan Choudhury, on behalf of the petitioners, claimed that no expert opinion has been taken for constructing the flyover, and plans for cutting the trees.
“In a democracy, the government of the day should listen to the people. The authority cannot arbitrarily decide and it must listen to our voice. Merely because somebody is sitting at a glasshouse in Dispur, does it mean he won’t listen to anybody?” he asked.
After listening to all the arguments, the bench fixed November 13 as the date for the next hearing.
Following a series of protests, the chief minister’s office on October 30 said that chief secretary Ravi Kota chaired a meeting with senior officials of PWD (Roads) to discuss possible alternatives for the upcoming flyover in order to avoid West and East Dighalipukhuri roads.
Hundreds of people, including singers, actors and students of nearby Cotton University, have been holding night vigils in the area to prevent the administration from cutting the trees.
Netizens also took to social media to criticise the government’s decision, highlighting the trees’ importance as habitats for numerous resident and migratory birds.
According to an RTI reply, the Public Works Department, which is looked after by chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, stated that the authorities have decided to go ahead with uprooting the trees surrounding the historic Dighalipukhuri without carrying out any environmental impact assessment and public hearing.
As per popular legend, Dighalipukhuri was constructed by King Bhagadatta, who led the Kauravas in the Battle of Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata, during the ‘swayamvar’ of his daughter Bhanumati.
Historically, the pond was used by the Ahoms as a naval dockyard, especially during the 1671 Battle of Saraighat on Brahmaputra.
Its access to Brahmaputra was eventually closed during colonial times. The connecting portion was further filled, on which the Circuit House was built and later the Gauhati High Court came up.
Besides, several other landmark structures like the state museum, district library, Rabindra Bhawan, Reserve Bank of India, a part of Cotton University, which is the first college of the Northeast, Handique Girls’ College, the first women’s college of the Northeast, Nabin Chandra Bordoloi Hall and district courts are located in the area. (PTI)
