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More than 100 Gen Alpha students of a private school reached the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) office in Pauri with drums and a band to draw the Forest Department's attention to dangerous trees along their school route.
Frustrated over the alleged lack of action for nearly a year, the students staged the protest by beating drums outside the office on Wednesday and demanded the immediate removal of the hazardous trees. A tree standing along the road leading to the private school in Pauri town has long been posing a serious threat to schoolchildren and pedestrians. Students use the route every day, raising fears that the tree could fall at any time and lead to a major accident. The school management claimed that it had been writing to the Forest Department and the district administration for a long time, seeking the removal of the dangerous tree, but no concrete action had been taken so far. With the issue remaining unresolved, students and teachers reached the Forest Department office on Tuesday to express their anger and press for immediate action. The school principal said, "I have been communicating about this since August 8, 2025. I even gave a letter to the Honourable Chief Minister, to the District Magistrate, to the Forest Officer of the Forest Department, to the Polytechnic. When I became frustrated with everything, when I couldn't get any result, and no trees were cut, then, keeping in mind the safety of the children, I had to come here. They have said that it will be cut before the 30. It could also be cut today or tomorrow." The students demanded that the hazardous trees be removed at the earliest to ensure the safety of schoolchildren and other commuters before any unfortunate incident takes place. Taking the matter seriously, DFO Mahatim Yadav said the dangerous trees along the school route have been identified. He assured that the process to remove them would begin within the next two days. Yadav said, "They informed me that there are three pine trees just above their school which are in a dangerous condition. In this regard, action has been taken by the division earlier as well. Since the land where those trees are located belongs to the Polytechnic College, we needed a 'No Objection Certificate' (NOC) from them as well. Also, that land was possibly given by the Forest Panchayat in the past. So, currently, all the processes have been completed at the division level," he said. "The effort is to ensure that we carry out the action to fell those trees according to the rules as soon as possible, i.e., within one to two days, so that the children remain safe and we remove whatever dangerous trees are there from that place in a safe manner according to the rules," he added. He said all necessary action would be taken to ensure that the trees do not pose a threat to the safety of any individual. (ANI)
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