Govt manages to translocate trees from Deocha Pachami
The Statesman | 23 May 2025
It may sound unbelievable but a forest has been set up consisting of trees that were trans-located in Deocha Pachami.
This is for the first time in the country when such a venture has been undertaken.
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The Chanda block of Deocha Pachami is the seat of the world’s second biggest coal block. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had instructed that no person can be evicted nor any tree that is situated within the excavation area can be felled.
Accordingly, an e-tender was floated and Shraddhanjali Nursery, IIT Kharagpur bid the lowest tender and got the job.
A total of 984 trees have been trans-located. Of these, 755 are Mahua trees, 86 Piyasal trees, 140 Arjuna trees, 2 Siris trees and one Bel tree. Generally, trees like Banyan and Piple, which have girth below 50 cm, are trans-located. But here the girth of trees varied from 90 cm to 215 cm. The average girth is about 140 cm and the height varies anything between 8-7 metre. The cost of translocation has been spent by the Power Development Corporation Limited. The translocation was supervised by the district magistrate of Birbhum.
There was initial resistance from the local tribal people who worship Mahua and other variety of trees. They felt that their religious sentiments would be hurt if the trees were felled.
Babulal Mahato, additional district magistrate, who is a PhD holder on agricultural science said the confidence of local people was earned before carrying out the translocation. The translocation began on 14 February and ended on 8 May.
He said the roots of the trees were covered with root balls and a special type of hormone being injected. Six feet to eight feet of earth was excavated and anti insect spray was applied before the trees were installed. The trees which got uprooted were taken to the new site by heavy-duty trucks. Cranes were deployed to uproot the trees and every care was taken to ensure that the trees did not die.
After the trees were planted, the tribal people were allowed to carry out puja at the new site. “It was a difficult task. But due to the cooperation of local people, administration and the agency that was assigned the job of translocation, everything was smoothly done.”