Miyawaki forest portion destroyed, activists point fingers at Chennai corporation

Chennai, Feb 22 Environmentalists and social activists are protesting after the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) destroyed a portion of a Miyawaki forest set up in Perungudi zone in a corporation school.

Activists said that the portion of the forest was destroyed to construct a new building.

Sudip Rajan, an environmental activist in Perandur while speaking to said, "The authorities have chopped off 30 trees in the Miyawaki forest to facilitate the entry of lorry with building materials to the school. There are other areas through which the lorry could have entered and there was no reason for chopping off these trees."

The Miyawaki forest was set up in 2000 square feet by the Rotary club inside the Corporation Higher Secondary School in Perandur and this is the first of its kind Miyawaki forest of Chennai.

However, the school authorities said that they did not uproot the trees and instead had chopped off their branches.

The Corporation engineer when contacted told that the school authorities had taken permission from the engineering department for the construction of the building and added that he was not aware of the trees being uprooted.

The environmental activists stick to their charge that trees were uprooted and removed. Arumughaswamy, Director of Green and Clean Tamil Nadu, an environmental NGO based at Vadapalani in Chennai while speaking to said, "The school authorities have chopped off more than 30 trees and we are taking this up at the highest level. The Miyawaki forests were giving green cover to the city and such blatant destruction should not be allowed."

PLANET (Perungudi Lake Neighbourhood environment transformation) group have been maintaining the Miyawaki forest for the past three years and the students have been watering around 500 saplings.

C. Rajeev, Director, Centre for Policy and Development Studies, a think tank based out of Chennai while speaking to said, "Miyawaki forest is a unique method to create greenery in places where space is less and if authorities themselves start to destroy such initiatives, the hope for Chennai in increasing the green cover will be lost. Awareness creation and government intervention at the highest level is required to prevent such atrocities against the environment."

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