Authorities have stated it would be challenging task to plant more than 6 crores trees on the replacement of almost 24 lakhs trees needed to be chopped down for the construction of proposed Nijgadh International Airport.
The Project Authority said that they have anticipated to plant trees on other districts too as the Bara district where the construction of the airport is going on doesn’t possess enough land to plant trees.
But many people has doubted on its execution. According to the regulation one has to plant 25 new trees if one is cut down but this is not so easy.
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has already mention in its report to eradicate more than 24 lakhs trees spread over 7 thousand hectare land of the proposed national pride airport.
With the approval of EIA’s proposal, way has been opened for cutting down trees and the discussion is going on selection of suitable place to plant new trees, informed Ministry of Forests and Environment.
Assistant Forest Officer of Forest and watershed division under Ministry, Loknath Ghimire has stated though land be unavailable at Bara district we will be planting trees in neighboring districts where there are lesser forest area. And majority of those places could be of Province no.2 or Chure region.
It is estimated that 38,000 hectare land is essential for afforestation. And to nurture those plants for five years, EIA has mentioned that it will require around 14 billion NRs in its report.
But as all the tasks couldn’t be carried at once, the responsible body for the project, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has said to accomplish this work step by step which will further assist in minimizing the possible risks.
The project director for Nijgad Intl’ Airport, Pradeep Adhikari stated they will not deforest the area at once and new plants will be added as per the number of trees eradicated.
According to the Authority agreement has been made with the Nepali Army two years back to eradicate the trees inside the project area. But in accordance to the law, there has been made provision for paying compensation incase difficulty arises while planting new trees. It’s the first project in the history of Nepal where trees are about to be chopped and planted in such huge magnitude, so this task will be challenging.
Though the construction project was proposed since long time, there is still confusion on choosing appropriate model and estimation of the actual cost of the project.
