On February 2, with eminent homeboy technocrat Sam Pitroda in attendance, Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel will lay the foundation stone of Infocity. It was expected to provide the government some respite after the heavy flak it faced in the past two months over the law and order situation.

Instead, it has already raised a storm. State Civil Supplies Minister Jaspal Singh has sounded the first note of dissent against the proposal to fell 98,000 trees standing in the 200 acres of land adjacent to the National Co-operative Management Institute near the Indroda Circle on the periphery of Gandhinagar, where the project is to be housed.

Last week, Singh summoned the Gandhinagar district collector and senior forest officials to discuss the issue. On being informed of the potential damage to the environment, Singh has reportedly threatened to take up the matter at the central level.

The Newsline team spoke to a cross-section of people and asked them for their views on the issue.

"Cutting of trees, whichever species they are, is dangerous for the environment. They could be hardy species like the babool or more versatile ones that the protect environment, conserve water or give us fruits", said noted environmentalist Mrinalini Sarabhai.

Having taken up the matter with Union Home Minister L K Advani, Sarabhai said she felt that the loss of green belt in Gandhinagar would not only affect the city's environment but also result in a reduction of its underground water table.

"Every tree that is cut is a loss for the country, considering the fact that most parts of the country are passing through the process of desertification", Sarabhai said, adding that cutting a tree was as serious a crime as killing of a tiger.

"In other countries when they cut one tree they also ensure that 100 more trees are grown in its place," Sarabhai said, adding, "the land has to be replenished; you cannot go on taking from the earth, you have also to give something back to it".

N V Vasani, Information and Technology Advisor to the Chief Minister and the man whose brainchild Infocity is, said the trees that are to be cut were meant to be felled as they had been grown by the State government and were a part of the energy plantation.

Kiran Desai of the Centre for Environment and Education said the Government's logic that the trees to be felled were of a hardy species and had been planted for commercial purposes was part of the process in which development and environmental compulsions were weighed. "At any stage, the development compulsions always get the better of environmental compulsions", Desai remarked.

The lakhs of trees marked for the timber yard may or may not have been of a hardy species but they might have created micro-climate because to have so many trees afforested in an area is good for its environment, Desai said. He also feared that the ``insensitivity'' shown to the green belt in Gandhinagar would result in more trees being cut.

"The authorities should have explored other options of acquiring land that has not been afforested, which would show their sensitivity towards environmental protection", he said. "If they have done so they should come out with the facts".

"Cutting of trees will not affect the underground water table of that particular area as long as the Sabarmati continues to flow," Desai said. "The only advantage of having trees in Gandhinagar is that the litter generated by them protects the soil moisture".

Renowned naturalist Law Kumar Khacher, however, said he believed development was as important an issue as environmental protection. "If the trees were grown for commercial purpose and were of hardy species like babool and ganda baval, it would be difficult to say that they should not have been cut", he said. However, he added, were many unused open spaces in Gandhinagar that could have been used for the construction of Infocity.