Environmental activists and lawyers have submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the move to cut down over 400,000 trees in the Shahabad forests of Rajasthan, which is close to the Cheetah-designated landscape near Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Trees will be cut due to a proposal to establish a pumped storage hydropower plant, which environmentalists say would endanger the habitats of threatened bird and animal species, as well as medicinal plants. The memorandum was also submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav, seeking relocation of the proposed pumped storage hydropower project. The government has granted permission for felling of 125,000 trees to facilitate the establishment of an 1800 MW private power project by Hyderabad-based Greenko Energy Private Limited (GEPL) on 408 hectares of land in Shahabad tehsil of Baran district. “This land falls under a protected forest area, and preparations are being ...