Actress and BJP MP Hema Malini on Sunday expressed concern at large scale disappearance of green cover in her constituency Mathura and around and wondered what the state forest department was doing.
Talking to IANS, Hema Malini said that "the local flora and fauna was under threat and those concerned with preserving forests and ecology had shown little interest in preventing loss of green cover".
"Braj is known for its forests, greenery and water bodies. Sri Krishna was himself a keen environmentalist and lover of nature. Banshi Vat once had more than 100 acres of dense forest with some exquisite species of trees peculiar to Braj area, now hardly 20 acres are left. The situation is alarming and each day trees are being felled.
"If people do not wake up today, and prevent loss of greenery, the Braj area will be totally denuded and there will be only cement structures all around. Mathura-Vrindavan are visited by millions of Sri Krishna devotees for whom the forests and the Yamuna river are sacred entities," she said.
Hema Malini said that when some villagers informed her of trees being chopped down in different areas, she visited Banshi Vat and "was shocked to see loss of green cover".
"I appealed to villagers to help and maintain a vigil," she said.
--IANS
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