BVHA Protests Tree-cutting in Raman Reti

The Braj Vrindavan Heritage Alliance lodged its protest against the cutting of the ancient trees of Vrindavan.

On June 5th World Environment Day the members of the alliance protested against the cutting of trees by tying Raksha Sutra on the ancient trees of Ramanreti and Parikrama Marg. The BVHA members met at the Bhagwat Niwas before the demonstration.

The speakers said that the government had cut hundreds of fully grown trees in Mathura – Vrindavan road in the name of Development in Vrindavan. Now they are planning to cut the ancient trees of Raman Reti and Parikrama Marg for road broadening. If needed the design of the road and sewerage system should be changed.

The trees are the soul of Braj – Vrindavan and Krishna lover will oppose any kind of action which results into tree cutting. The roads are being broadened for the increasing number of traffic in Vrindavan. But there is no traffic plan for the town.

Big buses and vehicles are allowed to park in the middle of the road. If needed, one-way traffic rules should be enforced for few hours on certain busy streets which lead to the major temples.

We don’t want Vrindavan to be developed as a metropolitan city. It should be developed as Tirtha sthali.

As its name suggests, Vrindavan used to be a jungle, but the land mafias and so-called developers are working hand in hand to destroy Vrindavan’s heritage. No government has seriously thought of Vrindavan’s development since Independence. Now for the first time a huge amount of funds is being spent on this development. There is nothing wrong in the intention of the government. But whatever destruction is happening is due to the lack of planning.

The government should sit with the citizens and make a plan how to develop this temple town. The situation becomes more alarming when the government makes sewage drains (nullahs) over the ancient ghats on the Yamuna. This legitimizes the illegal encroachments on the ghats and makes it impossible to bring the Yamuna back to these original ghats.

The Archaeological Survey of India, which is the government agency responsible for the protection of ancient buildings is not taking any interest in protecting these magnificent ghats. The miniature art of these ghats is better than that of any other pilgrimage town. The ASI is not even taking proper care of those monuments that are officially protected by it.

Several unnecessary drains are also being built in the town. These drains are so big that they will be only be cleaned occasionally. The traditional small drains were far better in that municipal workers cleaned them regularly. It is a big question how the sanctity of this holy town will be maintained if it is transformed into a fully concrete jungle.

Present were prominent personalities were present in the meeting and the demonstration that followed: Baba Sewak Sharan, Acharya Shrivatsa Goswami, Bal Krishna Goutam, Pt. Chandra Prakash Sharma, Baba Balaram Das, Anuragi Baba, Nitai Das, Acharya Mridul Kant Shashtri, Naresh Narayan, Pratibha Sharma Advocate, Shuk Dev Das, Suresh Chandra Sharma, Ram Narayan Brajwasi, Rajendra Agrawal, Devendra Dixit, Vishakha Dasi, Brahmachari Devendra Chaitanya, Haridas Shashtri, Nirguna Davi Dasi, Priya Sharan Das, Biharin Dasi, Jai Kishor Goswami, Ashok Kumar Agrawal, Krishna Das, Shri Shyam Sundar Das, Mohit Agrawal, Alok Agrawal, Madhumangal Shukla, Katie Walter, Devendra Dixit, Atul Goyal, Monu Goyal, Jagannath Poddar, Abhishek Shrivastava, Ravindra Kulshreshtha, Girdhari Lal Ji, Shyam Das, Kunj Bihari Das and many other devotees.