DEHRADUN: Protesters objecting to the felling of trees on Sahastradhara Road have alleged harassment by cops while they were carrying out a protest on Wednesday afternoon. The alleged harassment took place when residents and local activists were staging a Chipko-like protest to stop the felling of trees, which has been okayed by the high court.
"We were staging a peaceful protest near the Apollo School where the trees were being chopped down. Cops came to the site in large numbers and started questioning us. They asked for the home address of some of the protesters and even threatened us with arrest and legal action," said Anuradha (who goes by her first name), a city resident.
Another protester, Ankit Rawal, an advocate by profession, said, "The city magistrate also reached the spot. Cops were not at all paying heed to what we had to say. We don't want to disrupt government work but we do want the authorities to realise that we are simply asking them to save the ecology of the area."
When queried, officials avoided the question of "harassing protesters" by claiming that "the forest department was only following court orders." The activists are planning to meet the district magistrate on Thursday to raise their concerns. Notably, the felling of 2,057 trees was allowed by the high court to broaden the 14-km-long Jogiwala-Pacific Golf Estate Road. The broadening of this road is said to make access to Mussoorie faster for tourists coming from Delhi. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, a protester said that the Supreme Court has accepted to hear a petition against the high court order. However, TOI wasn't able to verify the claim till the time of filing this report.
