"15-Minute Shortcut to Disaster": Uttarakhand Govt Plans to Axe 3,000 Trees, Bypass Local Economy..
RISHIKESH: A "development" project in Uttarakhand is once again drawing massive public outrage, with residents questioning if shaving off 15 minutes from travel time is worth sacrificing 3,000 trees and the livelihoods of hundreds.
The government’s proposed widening of the Rishikesh-Dehradun road isn’t just an environmental catastrophe in the making—it’s a death warrant for small businesses that depend on the current highway.
The new route will bypass existing settlements, leaving shopkeepers, dhaba owners, and service providers high and dry.
Peepal Baba, the widely respected people’s environmentalist, has sounded the alarm, calling the move a short-sighted trade-off that will irreversibly damage the region’s ecosystem.
The public backlash has been swift. Rishikesh residents are now up in arms, social media is buzzing, and voices like Anup Nautiyal from the Dehradun Citizens Forum are rallying people to push back.
"This is a small effort to collect public response and feedback regarding the proposed 3,000-plus tree felling on the Rishikesh-Dehradun route.
We’ve received close to 100 public comments already—almost everyone is against it," Nautiyal said.
The irony? The government that waxes poetic about ‘green Uttarakhand’ is bulldozing through ancient trees and communities in the name of ‘progress.’
Residents are now demanding accountability: Is this really development, or just another elite infrastructure project at the cost of nature and ordinary people?
