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Govt confirms felling of trees

By Spl correspondent

NEW DELHI, Dec 15 - The Centre has confirmed that 16,534 trees have been felled from the West Bengal border to Lumding in Assam for construction of the four-lane East-West Corridor.

Quoting the Assam Government, Minister of Environment and Forest Prakash Javadekar said that the Government of India has sanctioned the use of 45 hectares of forest land under the Lumding reserve forest of Nagaon South Forest Division, Hojai for the road project.

Moreover, 70.4 hectares under the Longthing Mopa reserve forest of Dima Hasao district have been sanctioned for upgradation and improvement of the National Highway 54 under the East-West Corridor Project.

At least 13,628 trees under the Nagaon South Forest Division and 2,906 trees under the Dima Hasao West Division were felled for construction of the four-lane road, Javadekar said in a Lok Sabha reply to a question by BJP MP from Tezpur, RP Sharma.

In lieu of the forest land use for highway construction and felling of trees, compensatory afforestation in 240 hectares of land in the Nagaon South Division and 297 hectares under the Dima Hasao West Division has been carried out, the minister said.

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