Staff Reporter :The Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) is cutting down roadside trees indiscriminately in the capital’s Banani area to widen footpaths, laying water pipes and constructing drains.As a result, the city is getting nude day by day and losing its greeneries following felling of trees at random in such a brutal way in the name development, dwellers alleged, adding that this mindless act should be stopped without any delay. During a visit to the area on Sunday, this reporter found huge number of logs of trees are scattered on the roads and lanes. Construction workers were seen repairing or widening the roads and walkways and constructing drains.DNCC officials claimed that there is no alternative to cutting trees for purposes like footpath widening, laying water pipes, sewerage lines, electricity cables and telephone lines and constructing drains. “Though we feel bad about chopping of trees, we are forced to do it for the ongoing development work,” Brig Gen Md. Syeed Anwarul Islam, Chief Engineer of DNCC, told The New Nation on Sunday.He said, a few hundred trees might have been chopped in different parts of Banani, but the DNCC has planned to plant more saplings as a compensatory move.Worried by the indiscriminate felling of trees, Amir Hossain, a resident of Banani area, told The New Nation yesterday that we do not mind the chopping of trees that were on the main roads. But why did they fell the ones that were besides footpaths?”Footpaths may be constructed or widened but that does not mean there can be no trees here,” he added.
