Hubballi/Karwar: The National Highway Authority of India’s (NHAI) compensatory afforestation programme is drawing flak form environmentalists in Uttara Kannada district.

In a strange move, the NHAI has decided to take up compensatory afforestation in Chitradurga for the plants which were removed during the highway expansion between Bhatkal and Karwar.

About 15,000 trees were cut to widen the highway between Bhatkal and Karwar which will soon become part of the four lane coastal highway stretching between Mumbai and Kanyakumari.

As per the rules, NHAI had to take up replanting of the same or more plants in the vicinity. But it has chosen a site which is located about 320 km from Karwar. The plants which were uprooted during the widening are tree species from Western Ghats and may not grow at all in the climatic conditions of drier Chitradurga.

Moreover, majority of compensatory afforestation programmes which are taken up by various governmental agencies have mostly failed. Be it the Metro Rail authorities in Bengaluru or BRTS Company in Hubballi-Dharwad, environmentalists point out that the plant numbers remain on papers.

“The afforestation that has been taken up far from the site which has lost its biodiversity holds no value,” said V N Naik, a marine biologist from Karwar.

“By removing the trees from a certain area you are actually destroying the micro habitat. You cannot bring back the same habitat by planting trees hundreds of miles away. Instead we are suggesting to take up tree planting along the highway wherever there is a provision. Between Bhatkal and Karwar there are dry hillocks where planting can be taken up. Environmentalists have also written to the Karwar DC who has assured that steps will be taken to plant trees along the highway,” he said.