An alternative strategy for roadside plantation in India

Global warming is now a much-talked issue everywhere. There are many instances where we compromise with the trees in the name of development. One such example is cutting of trees during the expansion of roads. Among the others, road expansion or widening is an important aspect of development for proper mobility, communications, and transportations. And we can’t ignore development. However, during this process lot of roadside trees are being cut out for many years.

We can see some press reports such as:

1. More than 7 Lakh trees to be cut for upcoming Karnataka Highway projects, published in “The New Indian Express” on 08 July 2018 (Image below).  http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/2018/jul/08/karnataka-may-lose-735-lakh-trees-to-upcoming-highway-projects-1840096.html

2.  In past one year, 5000 trees axed in Bijnor for widening roads, reported by “Times of India” Meerut city edition  on 24 March 2018. (Image below)

3.  Over 2,000 tress to cut for road expansion in Delhi, reported by “The Asian Age” 25 March 2018.  (Media reporting image below)

Like these, there are many more reports…
On the other hand, we have seen efforts from government, NGOs and the common public in planting trees on both sides of roads. So it appears that when these trees will be fully grown (say after 10 to 20 years) because of the population growth and development demand there will be again needed of road expansion/widening. And these trees will be cut again. This creates a scenario of no gain. Therefore, there is an urgent need to address this issue for a long term solution at least on a national level.

Problem with the current approach.
As discussed above the traditional roadside plantation doesn’t fulfill the maintaining the greenery as there is a good chance of cutting them again when they are fully grown. But an alternative approach can work… First, let us see an illustration of the current scenario.

So we are loosing 20 trees for every 100 meters of road expansion… This is boomerang because some time ago these roadside trees were planted.

What is the solution or alternative strategy??
The solution can be instead of planting trees in the roadside,

• Plantation shall be carried out at least 20-30 meters away from the national highways or roads.
• Plantation can be carried out NOT in line but in groups to recreate mini-forest like scenario. A quick calculation says we can plant at least 80 trees in a stretch of 100mtr road (Refer the illustrated image below)
• Government highway authorities can purchase such land about say 30 meters away from the road for plantation.
• The plantation can be handed over to the local public or other interested agencies.