State Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray has written to Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, requesting him to save a 400-year-old peepal tree from being cut in the construction of a national highway.
This comes days after the State government wrote to the Centre to safeguard a sanctuary in Vidarbha from being part of a coal field and protect the core area of Melghat tiger reserve from the changing gauge of railway track.
While thanking Mr. Gadkari for the ongoing construction work of the Ratnagiri-Kolhapur-Miraj-Solapur National Highway number 166, Mr. Thackeray said, “The road passes through Bhose village where a 400-year-old peepal tree, which is in front of the Yellama Goddess temple, falls in its path. The tree spread over 400 square meters is not only historical but also an abode to thousands of birds.”
“Considering the importance of this tree, I request you to kindly alter the road construction plan,” Mr. Thackeray stated in his letter sent on Friday.
This is the second letter from the Environment Minister to the Centre in four weeks. On June 22, he had written to Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, expressing his opposition to the auctioning of proposed coal blocks in Tadoba-Andhari tiger reserve as they fall in the tiger corridor.
