The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : 300 trees to go on Palace Road

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Monday, Jun 30, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

300 trees to go on Palace Road

Deepa Kurup

— Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

AT WHAT COST?: A May 29, 2008 photo of road widening work on Race Course Road in Bangalore.

BANGALORE: An entire generation of Garden City’s residents may never know what it is like to walk under thick, cooling foliage on arterial roads. That is because the magnificent trees, many decades old, may not be around for long. Awaiting the axe are 300 trees on Palace Road.

While this number includes large, old ficus and rain trees, the collateral damage is much more as it includes trees on private and public property on the road. And this is just one of the 91 roads slated to be widened.

Sources in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike told The Hindu that Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had asked for expediting road widening work despite a public interest litigation petition pending in the High Court of Karnataka. The petition questions the basis of the widening plans.

Flawed design

In October 2007, the Deputy Conservator of Forests issued an order to stop work on Palace Road after a survey report submitted by Subbarayan Prasanna of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

This report pointed out that the designs were flawed and stated that there was no detailed design geometry to justify the felling of trees and removal of green cover. It also suggested the use of medians or adding extra lanes by leaving trees on green strips. The order was revoked at a later date.

The road from Basaveshwara Circle to Maharani’s College has a temple. The design permits the temple to stay, thereby creating a bottleneck and also making it impossible to retain the trees on a median.

Transfer of land from the Chief Justice’s residence on the same road has not been initiated, as per information secured through an RTI application.

Unlike previous instances where the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike cut all the trees at one go, the permission for cutting of trees is being given in instalments. At present, permission has only been sanctioned for 14 trees on the stretch from the Chalukya Hotel Circle to the temple.

“We know that these projects can take a long time. What if the project is wound up or takes longer than expected? We have decided to retain trees for as long as possible,” says Conservator of Forests (BBMP) S. Shekhar. He points out that green activists do not realise that for these trees that they are forced to cut the BBMP intends to plant about 2 lakh saplings in the city.

‘Why the rush?’

Environmentalists are not impressed. The Hasiru Usiru network recently staged a protest on the road.

“Why is the Government rushing this? At a previous meeting with the authorities we had asked them to validate these plans by providing facts and figures about how much traffic these new roads will take,” says Kanishka L. of Hasiru Usiru.

The authorities have not been able to provide any figures.

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