Cuttack: The Odisha govt has shifted a proposed 100-bed yoga and naturopathy hospital and research institute from a densely vegetated 20-acre area in Khurda district to an alternative site, potentially saving thousands of trees, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) was informed on Tuesday.In an affidavit placed before the NGT’s east zone bench, Khurda collector and district magistrate Amrit Ruturaj stated that as part of the relocation process, 15 acres of govt land at Alkar under Jatni tehsil was identified and handed over to the Union ministry of Ayush for setting up the Central Research Institute of Yoga and Naturopathy.The project’s foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi via video conferencing on Oct 29, 2024.The affidavit comes in reply to a petition, filed by local residents Hazari Dehuri and Hrudananda Kodamsingh, that challenged the diversion of the 20-acre land for the proposed institute. On March 19, 2025, NGT had stated that all construction work would be subject to the outcome of the petition seeking relocation of the project.After taking the collector’s affidavit on record, the bench. comprising judicial member Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert members A Senthil Vel and Ishwar Singh. closed the hearing on Tuesday.In the affidavit, the collector informed the tribunal that the original 20-acre plot was classified as ‘gochar’, or grazing land, and was not recorded as forest land. But the authorities decided to shift the proposed project to another site after finding forest growth on the originally identified land, which could attract restrictions under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Following discussions with the Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy under the Union Ayush ministry, land at Alkar village in Jatni tehsil was identified as an alternative site.Petitioners’ counsel Sankar Prasad Pani said, “The relocation could save nearly 26,000 trees at the original 20-acre site, where a joint verification by forest and revenue officials found more than 3,300 trees per hectare (1,335 trees per acre).”According to the affidavit, the district administration approved the site-selection proposal on Feb 23, 2026. The state revenue and disaster management department sanctioned advance possession of the 15-acre plot on April 4, and the Jatni tehsildar handed over the land on April 28.The original land at Binjhagiri, earlier allotted to the ministry for the project, has since been resumed and restored to its original revenue records, the collector stated.