Rostov activists demanded to preserve trees in Kumzhenskaya grove

Rostov environmentalists filed complaints and appeals in defense of the Kumzhenskaya grove to Putin's reception office.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, residents of the village of Kayalsky in the Rostov region complained to the Investigative Committee of Russia about the felling of trees in a local grove, where construction work had begun. It later became known that the villagers had achieved a stop to the felling of trees.

Rostov residents asked to initiate an inspection of the compliance of the general plan of Rostov-on-Don with the territorial planning scheme of the region. Based on the results of the inspection, they will demand the cancellation of illegal changes to the general plan, adopted without discussion and agreement with the public. And also to stop any construction project affecting the Kumzhensky memorial and grove, the publication "Bloknot Rostov-on-Don" informs.

"The city public has repeatedly appealed to the courts, providing documents confirming that the original territorial planning scheme did not provide for such a route. The western chord should pass through other streets, where residents were resettled for public needs back in the 80s. However, commercial interests, violating the law and common sense, placed the route through the memorial and the city forest," says the appeal of the public council "Mission - Rostov", which joined the petition filing, the publication informs.

On August 31, Rostov eco-activists came out to protect 800 trees of the Kumzhensky grove. Residents came with children, lined up in a "human chain", hugged the trunks and attached sheets with the inscriptions: "Do not cut down", "We are alive". This is how they decided to demonstrate their attitude to the decision to cut down the forest so that officials would leave it alone, reports the Telegram channel "Main News of Rostov".

"Kumzhenskaya Grove is located in a picturesque place at the confluence of the Don and the Dead Donets and is not only a favorite vacation spot for thousands of Rostov residents, but also, in fact, the "lungs" of Rostov. It has not only ecological, but also historical significance - the Alley of Silence runs through the grove, leading to burial sites of WWII heroes, where 664 Soviet soldiers are buried. That is why I, together with the residents, came out to defend the Kumzhenskaya grove," wrote former deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Rostov Region Evgeny Fedyaev on his Telegram channel on September 1.

"Officials insist on building an interchange through this territory and refer to compensatory landscaping. But how much oxygen can 800 healthy large trees provide, and how much can 800 small seedlings, most of which will die," Fedyaev clarified.

Earlier, more than 80 Rostov residents filed a lawsuit, demanding the cancellation of the city council resolutions that allowed the cutting down of part of the Kumzhenskaya grove in Rostov, as illegal. The courts rejected the claim. The Rostov Region Ministry of Transport stated that the "western chord" will not affect the memorial complex in the Kumzhenskaya grove. However, residents consider it unacceptable to cut down even part of the grove, to build noisy overpasses over the "Alley of Silence" near the memorial and military burials, wrote "Bloknot Rostov-on-Don".