4,431 trees felled for Mumbai-Pune E-way expansion

At least 4,431 trees have been felled to make way for the upcoming ‘missing link’ on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway to connect the Khopoli exit on the existing highway to Sinhagad Institute near Lonavala. The tree felling was in violation of stage-1 forest clearance granted to the project, the minutes of a recent meeting of the regional empowered committee (Nagpur), constituted by the Union environment ministry, has revealed.

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) had been granted stage-1 clearance to divert 75 hectares (ha) of forest land for the project in Raigad and Pune districts on February 6, 2019 “subject to fulfilment of certain conditions”.