The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Environmentalists `roughed up' by math personnel

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 23, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Environmentalists `roughed up' by math personnel

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, APRIL 22. Representatives of various environment groups in the city, who were protesting the felling of a 60-year-old tree which stands on a piece of land near Shankar Math in Basavangudi, were allegedly roughed up by people from the math on Thursday.

As many as 30 persons from environmental groups, including Green Peace Foundation and Environment Support Group, staged a demonstration in front of the math, which reportedly owns the open space on which the tree stands. The Shankar Math Trust reportedly sold the piece of land to an individual recently.

"When some of us went to the math today to plead with the math authorities not to fell the tree, some of the men there started assaulting us and abusing us. They did not even spare the women in the group. They even called the police, who threatened to book a case of rioting against us instead of stopping those people from assaulting us," M. Venkatesh, an environmentalist who took part in the protest, said.

On Wednesday, residents of the area staged a protest and stopped workers from cutting down the tree. The representatives from the environment groups later filed a complaint with the Shankarpuram Police against the people from the math. But the police seemed not to pay much heed to them, Mr. Venkatesh said.

Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group said he had met the Commissioner of Police and informed him about the incident. He said the Commissioner promised that action would be taken in the matter.

He said the owners of the land had been given permission by the Forest Department only to prune the branches of the tree and not to chop it.

According to Mr. Saldanha, the Horticulture Department officials of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike have inspected the land and the tree and suggested that the tree should not be felled, as it was an old rain tree.

"I spoke to the Deputy Conservator of Forests and he has said that he will ask the officials concerned to stop felling of the tree for now," he added.

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