DEHRADUN: Over ten thousand trees on the 30km stretch between Harsil to Gangotri in the Garhwal Himalayas have been marked to be cut down in the name of widening of road. The environmentalists are terming this exercise as a major ecological disaster in the making in the eco-sensitive zone.Suresh Bhai, noted environmentalist said, “It is ironical that on one hand, the centre is planning to grow trees on 30,000 hectare area from Gangotri upto Ganga Sagar to protect the ecology around the river and, on the other hand, the state government is felling over ten thousand green trees largely deodar inside the Gangotri National Park where Ganga originates for road widening.“He said, in 1997-98 women of several villages of Uttarkashi had tied rakhi by launching Raksh Sutra andolan when it was alleged by the locals that a large number of tree have fallen. Then an enquiry was ordered by environment ministry in which it was found that large number of trees beyond the mandate were indeed fallen. “What is the rationale of first cutting green trees and then planting new sapling elsewhere for compensation. Why can not we save these trees and plant new trees where there is space. Uttarakashi forest has not yet gotten over the bad effects of massive fire resulting into soil erosion in the region. The tree felling would further trigger land cutting at massive scale.”He said, the tree cover was the only shield available to protect the area from the glaciers falling in pieces from the top of the mountains, or else the entire would be washed away.Ravi Chopra, former director of Peoples’ Science Institute termed the entire exercise of tree felling illegal saying, “Tree felling for road widening is restrictive in Uttarkashi, which has been declared as eco-sensitive zone and is already prone to landslides , flood and earthquakes. The authorities can not have the same norms for widening of roads for eco-sensitive zones, on the lines of plain area such as Dehradun and Haridwar. It seems that the state government is hell bent upon earning revenue putting lives of scores of people and fragile ecology at stake.”Member of the Supreme Court monitoring committee on eco-sensitive zone in Uttarkashi , Mallika Bhanot said, “It is after the 2013 flash flood disaster, the fragile region of Uttarkashi has begun showing some signs of recovery now. But without conducting any study from geologist and ecologist, the state government is pushing it against for another disaster by cutting thousands of trees for road widening. As a result, the slopes of the region would get destabilize and slide down uprooting umpteen other trees.”