On July 7, citizens gathered along a road in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun district, near the city’s airport. They came together to protest the cutting of trees in Badkot forest range for a road-widening project.The National Highway Authority of India announced that day that it was “taking forward” the project, which would involve widening to four or six lanes existing roads in a stretch of 20 km connecting Dehradun airport to Rishikesh.For this, it plans to cut more than 4,400 trees, according to its 2021 proposal to the ministry of environment, forest and climate change. The proposal noted that the work would require the use of around 20 hectares of reserved forest.The highway authority said the project aims to “strengthen connectivity between Dehradun, Jolly Grant Airport, and Rishikesh, while supporting tourism, Char Dham Yatra and the state’s growing transportation needs”.But protestors argued that the environmental cost of the work is too high. “A lot of the trees being cut were sal trees which are almost 200 years old,” said Ashutosh Kothari, an environmentalist and advocate based in Dehradun.Anoop Nautiyal, founder of the Social Development for Communities Foundation, in Dehradun, noted that the road expansion was part of a larger push to build infrastructure in the region. For instance, a new Delhi-Dehradun expressway was inaugurated earlier this year, and the Dehradun airport is set to expand, for which around another 90 hectares of forest in Thano forest are to be cut.He argued that this work was ill-advised. “It’s very clear that this is all tourism-centric,” said Nautiyal. “This model is making Uttarakhand more vulnerable to climate risks and amplifying the frequency and severity of disasters.”46,203 Hectares Forest Diverted in #Uttarakhand, 47% in #Dehradun district alone:On #Harela, I'm reflecting on where Uttarakhand stands today. Through an RTI I filed, I found that 46,203 hectares of forest land have been diverted for development projects since the state's… pic.twitter.com/iJkmYdaCY0— Anoop Nautiyal (@Anoopnautiyal1) July 16, 2026