Uttarakhand admits debris dumps on road to Gangotri

New Delhi, May 4 (IANS) There are debris dumps on the way to Gangotri, the Additional Advocate General (ADG) of Uttarakhand informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday.

The NGT bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar had on Wednesday summoned the Chief Secretary of the state in a matter related to the deforestation and widening of the national highway towards the Gangotri belt of Char Dham in Uttarakhand.

However, instead of the Chief Secretary, who is also the Forest Secretary of the state, ADG Rahul Verma appeared in the green court and apprised the bench of the status of the widening of the road to Char Dham, which includes Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath.

"There are debris dumps on the road from Bhaironghati in Uttarkashi district and we will take appropriate action against that," Verma told the bench.

On deforestation, Verma stated that the counting of trees along the 90-km stretch towards Yamunotri has been completed and that not all trees will be felled.

"There are about 5,000 trees in the stretch of the project and we have not chopped them. We cannot do that unless we receive permission from the ministry. Besides, all these trees are not on the road, so cutting them is out of the question," the ADG told IANS.

The ADG also informed the tribunal that the Uttarakhand government had earlier issued a notice to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) after finding that they dumped debris along the roads.

"We have issued them the notice and appropriate action will be taken against them," the ADG said.

The matter first came up in the tribunal in February through a petition, after several Himalayan trees, including oak and pine, were reportedly listed or marked to be felled for widening the road.

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