State mulls to rejuvenate Kolkata's 1st urban forest

kolkata: The state Forest department is planning to rejuvenate Kolkata's first urban forest located along the Mayo Road and Jawaharlal Nehru Road stretch, which has now turned into a garbage dumpsite with plastic packets strewn here and there and uprooted tree trunks lying unattended.

The urban forest — named Shaal-Mahul-Piyal — was developed on Metro junk yard adjacent to Manohar Das Tarag in 2004 and funded by Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC) as a compensation for felling nearly 1,500 trees to erect five flyovers. The then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had inaugurated it.

"The plan is to put a fence around the forest area. The adjacent footpath will be covered with paver block. There will be pay and use toilet and guards for keeping an eye so that the forest area remains spick and span," a senior official of the Forest department said. The thick canopy of green was composed of tress like sal, segun, mahul, piyal, arjun, neem, fig, banyan and other plants with medicinal value too.