The government is constructing a four-lane 5.05 km long flyover, the longest in the city, from Dighalipukhuri tank to Noonmati at a cost of Rs 852.68 crore. It is scheduled to become operational by 2026 when the next assembly polls in the state are due.
This is the second time that people have hit the streets with residents of the city staging protests in October-November last year when the BJP-led government had planned to chop around 25 trees, some as old as 200 years, along the banks of the iconic pond for the project.
The agitation had stopped after the Gauhati High Court took cognizance of a PIL and subsequently, the government assured that no trees would be cut, and the design of the length of the flyover would be shortened to avoid the historical area.
At a press conference on Sunday, prominent intellectuals and scholars condemned the ongoing felling and purported translocation of numerous, including century-old, trees in the Ambari and Dighalipukhuri areas.
Sahitya Akademi awardee Assamese litterateur Dr Hiren Gohain expressed disappointment, highlighting the government’s previous assurance, made after public protest and a court case, that the flyover design would be realigned to avoid impacting any trees.
“We are concerned about the lack of transparency and the undemocratic tactics. The trimming and so-called translocation activities have been undertaken in a hush-hush manner, often under the cover of darkness in the dead of night,” he added.
The authority started cutting the trees on GNB Road in campuses of Assam Textile Institute, Directorate of Archaeology and Rabindra Bhawan around 2-3 days back.
Though the government has not issued any statement yet, officials present at the site claimed that these trees are being “trimmed” in order to translocate them to a different location.
A group of activists protesting the felling of trees were detained on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday in front of Rabindra Bhawan.
Eminent advocate Santanu Borthakur said, “The government has taken a complete U-turn despite continued protests and affidavits in court. The authorities are virtually committing murder of nearly one hundred old trees,” he added.
Reacting to the development, opposition Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) criticised the government for what it calls hypocritical policies pretending to protect nature during the day, while secretly destroying it at night.
The party accused the government of pushing forward with “environmentally irresponsible” construction projects, rooted in unscientific planning, leading to the destruction of the state’s fragile ecological balance.
In a joint statement, AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi and general secretary Jagadish Bhuyan alleged that the government, instead of preserving nature, has become an active agent of its destruction.
Condemning the “anti-environmental, repressive and anti-people steps” taken under the garb of flyover construction based on “flawed planning”, the AJP demanded the government to immediately halt all activities leading to ecological destruction.
As per popular legend, the Dighalipukhuri was constructed by King Bhagadatta, who led the Kauravas in the Battle of Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata, during the ‘swayamvar’ of his daughter Bhanumati.
Historically, the pond was used by the Ahoms as a naval dockyard, especially during the 1671 ‘Battle of Saraighat’ on Brahmaputra.
Its access to Brahmaputra was eventually closed during colonial times. The connecting portion was further filled, on which the Circuit House was built and later the Gauhati High Court came up.
Besides, several other landmark structures like the state museum, district library, Rabindra Bhawan, Reserve Bank of India, a part of Cotton University (first college of Northeast), Handique Girls’ College (first women’s college of NE), Nabin Chandra Bordoloi Hall and district courts. PTI TR TR RG
