Guwahati: Renowned environmentalist Dattatreya T. Devare has said that the rampant destruction of the environment in the name of infrastructure is not “development” but “devilopment.”
Activist Devare, a trustee of the Bangalore Environment Trust (BET) and a veteran civic activist, spoke on Sunday (July 13) at the Pragjyoti ITA Cultural Centre in Guwahati.
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Hosted by the Concerned Citizens of Guwahati, his talk, “Tree Felling for Infrastructure: Balancing Development and Ecology,” drew a large, engaged audience keen to understand the complexities of urban development and its ecological fallout.
Drawing on his extensive experience in Bengaluru, Devare shared numerous compelling examples. He stressed the urgent need for a robust “Tree Act,” expressing concern over its absence in Guwahati. Such legislation, he explained, provides a crucial legal framework for tree protection, transplantation, and accountability.
Irreversible Damage and Displaced Communities
In a particularly moving part of his speech, Devare launched a scathing indictment of certain infrastructure projects, unequivocally labeling them “devilopment.”
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“We are experiencing not development but Devilopment in India,” Devare stated, explaining how projects often promoted as progress can, in fact, cause irreversible environmental damage and displace communities.
He provided detailed analyses of the environmental implications of indiscriminate growth, citing his involvement in various public protests in Bengaluru, including the widely reported 2016 protest against a proposed steel flyover.
Solutions for Sustainable Urban Development
Devare didn’t just highlight the problems; he also offered practical solutions. He outlined a set of legal, governmental, environmental, and societal measures that citizens and authorities in Guwahati could adopt to halt the indiscriminate felling of trees.
His holistic strategy emphasizes engaging with local administration, pursuing legal avenues for environmental protection, and facilitating community-led initiatives for saving trees.
“The court wants facts and figures; therefore, it is essential to conduct a proper Environmental Impact Assessment study,” he insisted, stressing the importance of data in opposing tree cutting disguised as development.
He also referenced the recent tree transplanting undertaken in the Guwahati’s Dighalipukhri area, stating, “Transplanting of trees must be the last resort.”
Devare further pointed out legislative flaws, such as Assam’s lack of a Heat Wave Action Plan, and reminded the audience of Supreme Court rulings, like the directive that “Afforestation should be completed before felling,” which he noted is often disregarded in Guwahati’s current developmental works.
He also introduced alternative plantation processes, such as the Miyawaki method, vertical gardens, and roadside tree planting, as ways to mitigate environmental degradation caused by infrastructural development.