Dhanbad residents are concerned over the depleting green cover as over 30,000 trees have been felled in the last five years for broadening of major roads.

The scorching summer temperatures have added to the woes of the residents.

Procedural delay in deciding the agency to carry out plantation work, delay in transfer of funds and lack of free space are mainly responsible for the poor state of affairs. Only 10% seeds have been sown so far.

Around 417 tress were cut down during broadening work of the 5.5km City Center to Barawaddah road carried out at a cost of Rs 34.67 crore by Road construction Department in 2017-2019.

Around 6000 trees were razed ahead of the eight-laning of 20 km Kako Math- Gol Building road since May 2019 carried out by the State Highway Authority of Jharkhand for Rs 416 crore.

In 2017-18, 54 trees were chopped for four-laning of 25.71 km Bank More to Sindri road carried out for Rs 44.83 crore by road construction department.

Apart from this, 3,142 trees were cleared for broadening of the Govindpur Mahuda road being carried by the State Highway Authority of Jharkhand.

Vimal Lakra, Divisional forest officer of Dhanbad, said, “We have already carried out plantation work plantation of 2,000 trees in lieu of 417 trees felled during the four laning of city centre Barwaddah and funds of other agency are in process of being transferred.”

“We are facing difficulty in finding vacant land besides the broadened road for plantation work and are in process of identifying land for more plantation work,” explained Lakra.

Mritunjay Banerjee headmaster of a government school in Aamtal said, “my school located around 18km from my place at Moonidih and returning back to home during summer was never so tiresome and difficult like own due to lack of tree shades.”

Sanjay Kumar Mahto, manager of a pharmaceutical company told The Telegraph Online: “Our job entails long travels of 100 to 200 km a day on bike to different parts of the district for making doctors call, visiting to stockists and distributors for taking medicine orders etc.”

“It was quite a usual practice for us taking rests under the shades of trees during the long journeys and solace but since most of the roads and have been denuded of trees our fatigue increases during the travel which in turn affects our efficiency,” said Sanjay.