📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / Suyash Dwivedi
Local
36‑km Six‑Lane Bhopal Bypass Triggers Concern as Over 8,000 Trees May Be Cut
✍️ Amar Ujala · Bhopal
🗓 20 Aug 2026, 04:36 PM
👁 3
The state government has completed land acquisition for a 36‑kilometre six‑lane bypass in western Bhopal, citing a need to fell 3,200 trees, while local estimates put the impact at more than 8,000 trees across nine villages in the Kolhar area.
The Madhya Pradesh government has finalized land acquisition for a new six‑lane bypass stretching 36 kilometres through the western fringe of Bhopal. The project, aimed at decongesting city traffic, is slated to begin construction later this year.
Official documents list 3,200 trees that will be felled to make way for the roadway. However, residents of the Kolhar region, which includes nine villages along the proposed alignment, contend that the real figure exceeds 8,000 trees, raising alarms about loss of green cover and ecological balance.
Local environmental groups have approached the district administration, urging a reassessment of the tree‑cutting count and the adoption of mitigation measures such as compensatory plantation and relocation of mature specimens. The authorities have indicated that a detailed forest clearance report will be submitted to the state forest department.
The bypass is part of a broader push to improve urban mobility in Bhopal, yet the controversy highlights the recurring tension between infrastructure development and environmental preservation in rapidly growing Indian cities.
Official documents list 3,200 trees that will be felled to make way for the roadway. However, residents of the Kolhar region, which includes nine villages along the proposed alignment, contend that the real figure exceeds 8,000 trees, raising alarms about loss of green cover and ecological balance.
Local environmental groups have approached the district administration, urging a reassessment of the tree‑cutting count and the adoption of mitigation measures such as compensatory plantation and relocation of mature specimens. The authorities have indicated that a detailed forest clearance report will be submitted to the state forest department.
The bypass is part of a broader push to improve urban mobility in Bhopal, yet the controversy highlights the recurring tension between infrastructure development and environmental preservation in rapidly growing Indian cities.