Actor Sayaji Shinde opposes tree felling for Kumbh 2027

Strong opposition to the felling of some 1,825 trees in Nashik along River Godavari’s banks to facilitate the stay of the seers who will attend the Kumbh in 2027 has emerged from environmentalists. It started as a locally initiated movement but appears to be drawing wider support. Sayaji Shinde, an actor who has planted close to seven lakh trees on common lands, has stepped in.

Development plans for Kumbh 2027

The government, on the other hand, plans to spend close to Rs 3,700 crore to ready the city and the river for the devotees to come and take their dip and includes the setting up of a Sadhugram in the Tapovan area. These are called ‘development works’ and include better access to the city of over 2.3 million; enlargement of the airport at Ojhar, some 20 km away from the city, is also underway.

Backing for environmental cause

The Nashik citizens who jumped in with their objections got a boost on Friday when Shinde, a Maharashtrian cine, television and stage actor, visited the area and met the agitated citizens to show his support. Shinde has planted close to over seven lakh saplings and nursed them on the Sahyadri hill ranges. In 2019, he had questioned the Maharashtra government’s plantation drives.

Interestingly, Shinde calls the tracts he reforests, which are common lands, a ‘devrai’ which translates to ‘sacred grove’ implying that any felling later is prohibited and it has only to be nursed. Tapovan, where the felling is to take place, is a place name implying it was a sacred grove once. ‘Tapovan’ is a class of sacred groves, and people resist playing any mischief there. The irony is not to be lost.

He had called into question the government’s announcements of drives and claims of success, without a proper system of audits and nursing the saplings to grow as trees. This criticism had, in 2019, led to a last-minute cancellation of a programme where he was the key participant in tree-plantation. Shinde has acted in tens of Marathi, Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil movies. In his own plantation drives, Shinde prefers only native species.

Civic body under fire

The financial allocation is from the Maharashtra government which wants to compete with the recent Kumbh along the Ganga in both grandeur and facilities set up by the Uttar Pradesh government. The execution of most of the work is being done by the Nashik Municipal Corporation. It is the civic body which has come in for criticism for the plans.

The trees slated for felling are mostly native, sturdy and old. That step is to clear the ground of several hundred acres so the accommodation could be provided for the sadhus or seers who come as akharas and khalsas. The other component is to lease a part of a temporary exhibition named MICE – an acronym for meeting, incentive, conference, and exhibition – for a 33-year lease.

Apart from the dear environmental costs of felling trees, the other snag is how the civic body has gone in for a hit wicket. The area where the Sadhugram is to be built is a no-development zone, and its deregularisation has not been incorporated in the existing development plan. Two, many trees identified are those planted by the civic body. This came to light when the protesters confronted the municipal corporation.

Citizens against tree felling

Nearly three thousand signatures to a protest letter were obtained on Friday within a matter of hours, and the fierce opposition has put the civic body on the back foot. It has now moved to reduce the number of trees earmarked for a clear chop. The environmentalists are unwilling to take the civic body’s plan of planting new saplings as compensation

The agitators, who are apolitical environment lovers, have a simple but telling argument: people as citizens and as stakeholders have a vested right in the common good, the trees. They cannot be done away with no regard to the future of the city.