Thiruvananthapuram: National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials have in principle agreed to retain most of the heavy trunk trees that grow on the space designated for medians during the widening of the 26.5 -kilometre Kazhakoottam-Mukkola NH stretch.
After a second round of joint inspection held between Kazhakoottam and Kulathoor on Sunday, social forestry officials, the tree committee and NHAI reached a consensus.
"As per the promises given, trees will be retained on the four metre central medians, utility corridors, banks of the carriage way, and on the sides of the service lane," said activist Sridhar Radhakrishnan.
If realised, this will be a deviation from NHAI's usual median landscape style that allows only bougainvillea, nerium (arali) and theveita hedges on the central medium.
However if they stick to the formula agreed on Sunday, almost 30 per cent of around 5000 huge trees could be saved.
"Presently the inspection of only a crucial 5 kilometre stretch has been completed. The rest will be completed and a final plan will be declared by Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson on Thursday," said R Venkata Krishnan who heads the project implementation unit of NHAI, Thiruvananthapuram.
Though in June, the central government had introduced a policy of dedicating 1 per cent of the highway project money exclusively to plant and maintain trees, environmentalists fear that it may not be possible because of ineligibility.
"While the said plantation and maintenance policy is applicable for newer highways, the actual Karode-Kazhakoottam plan started decades ago," said environmentalists. who feel there should be stronger pressure for this demand.
