Over 9,000 trees would be felled in eco-sensitive areas of Himachal Pradesh to make room for laying of transmission lines by a private developer for a hydropower project in the State, the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, told the State Assembly on Thursday.

Initially, 22,650 trees were to be cut by the developer Jaypee Powergrid Ltd (JPL) but in the revised proposal, the number had been reduced to 9,621 trees, including 1,260 Deodar trees, Mr Dhumal said in reply to a question of Mr G.S. Bali of the Congress in the House.

However, questioning the rationale behind such large-scale felling of trees, Mr Bali said it was a serious issue as about 19,600 trees including thousands of fully grown Deodars would be cut for laying of the transmission lines from Wangtoo (in Kinnaur) to Adbullapur (in Haryana).

environmental concern

Sharing the environmental concerns of the Congress member, the Chief Minister said he would recheck the figures to ascertain the exact number of trees to be felled.

The State Government had allowed JPL, a joint venture of Jaiprakash Hydro-Power Ltd and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, to construct the 230-km power transmission corridor from Wangtoo to Adbullapur at an estimated cost of cost of Rs 932 crore.

Mr Dhumal said the proposal of diversion of 322 hectares of forest land to JPL for laying the transmission lines had already been approved by the Union Government on July 21, 2009 as 70 km length of transmission line would pass through forest areas.

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