Overview
- The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change wrote on March 20 to Odisha’s FE&CC department seeking an Action Taken Report on the allegation.
- Activist Alaya Samantaray alleged the proposed building would require removing more than 2,000 mature trees inside the NIT Rourkela campus.
- The complaint describes the area as an ecological buffer and ‘green lung’ that supports local flora and fauna in industrial Rourkela.
- An alternative site within the campus, where groundwork for a Civil Engineering Department project has reportedly begun and tree cover is limited, was proposed to avoid mass felling.
- The ministry asked state officials, including the Rourkela DFO, to examine any permissions and act under applicable rules, with the matter pending the state’s report.