The Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation (UFDC) is planning to cut five healthy trees near Indira Market for the construction of a complex under Redevelopment of Indira Market project. This elicited protest from concerned citizens under the banner of Citizens For Green Doon (CFGD). According to Himanshu Arora of CFGD, these trees that include Peepal and banyan tree among others are about 70 to 80 years old which makes them among the oldest trees in the city. He informed that MDDA is supposed to build a complex in the said area under the Indira Market redevelopment project. "For this project, UFDC was planning to cut down 22 trees about four years ago.  We pursued and convinced UFDC to not cut all these trees. Subsequently, it was decided by MDDA and the corporation that only five trees will be cut down while the remaining will get transplanted to other locations," said Arora.

However, some employees from UFDC arrived at the site on Tuesday to cut down the five trees before transplanting 17 trees, added Arora. According to him, they requested the corporation to cut down the trees after they finish the transplantation of 17 trees. "The employees from UFDC kept refusing to transplant the trees first and said that they will cut down the five trees on Wednesday early morning around 5 AM. The manner of cutting these trees at this time is questionable," stated Arora.

He said that there is no confirmation whether the construction of complex will begin right away or will take a few more months so why cut down the trees now because the tress can easily be cut within two days.

As stated by Arora, it is also unclear as to who will bear the cost of transplantation as the agreement of complex construction is with a private party. This correspondent tried to contact the divisional forest officer for his views on the matter but there was no response.