Prayagraj, 05 June (HS): Showing a mirror to the resolve of

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to make Uttar Pradesh a 'Green State' by the

year 2047, senior leader and former MP Kunwar Revati Raman Singh has expressed

concern about environmental protection in Prayagraj. He has written a letter to

the Chief Minister demanding that the population of Prayagraj district is

increasing and the number of trees are decreasing. He said that if indigenous

traditional trees had been planted in place of the foreign trees that were

planted at the cost of crores of rupees in the last Mahakumbh, then today the

city would not have been burning in this scorching heat, people would have got

shade and pure air and the environment would have been protected. He said that

instead of foreign trees like palm and date palm, traditional and environment

friendly trees like mango, mahua, peepal and banyan should be planted on the

roadsides of the upcoming Mahakumbh and other roads of the district.

MP representative Vinay Kushwaha said that former MP Kunwar

Revati Raman Singh, while drawing the attention of the Chief Minister, said

that in view of the Mahakumbh in Prayagraj, there is talk of 'Green Kumbh', but

at the ground level, only one type of trees (like palm, date palm, Gulmohar

etc.) are being planted on the roadsides.

The MP representative said that for example, Mahatma Gandhi

Marg was earlier called Pipariya Road because there were peepal trees on both

sides of the road, there were tamarind trees on Rambagh Station Road, and the

Prayagraj-Mirzapur road used to have dense mango, mahua and peepal trees.

During the road widening, all these traditional trees were cut down and

replaced with trees like Gulmohar and Palm. Trees like Palm, Date Palm and

Gulmohar are not at all suitable for the conservation of the local environment

and ecosystem. These trees neither provide adequate shade nor provide shelter

to local birds and animals.

Kunwar Saheb has urged the Chief Minister that for real

protection of the environment, traditional and long-lived trees should be

planted on a large scale in Prayagraj.

* Mango and Mahua

* Tamarind and Peepal

* Pakar, Banyan and Gular

At the end of the letter, the former MP has requested the

Chief Minister to make Prayagraj a truly 'green district' in view of big global

events like Mahakumbh and for the purpose of environmental protection. MP

Ujjwal Raman Singh said on World Environment Day that the way departmental

formalities are done, every year a record of planting crores of trees is made

but these are only on paper, on the ground only a few of them can be counted on

fingers and are visible and survive above the ground.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi