Indira Canteens, the subsidised eateries being opened across Bengaluru, will claim at least 10 fully grown trees.
With the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) planning to open the canteens by the second week of August, their construction is going on in full swing. The approval to remove eight trees has already been given by the Forest Department. An Assistant Conservator of Forests said: “Approval has been given for cutting down eight trees to facilitate the construction of Indira Canteens in southern Bengaluru. Two or three trees have already been cut.”
When asked if the construction plan could be altered to save the trees, the officer said: “The canteens are coming up in many densely populated areas that have space constraints.”
While four trees will be felled in Jayanagar alone, one tree each in JC Road, KR Road, Vijayanagar and Koramangala face the axe.
This apart, a request has been sent to the North Division of the Forest Department for cutting down two tamarind trees in Mahadevapura. But it has not yet approved.
In Domlur, a tree has already been cut down. But Domlur corporator C R Lakshmi Narayan dismissed the suggestion that the BBMP cut down the tree to facilitate the construction of the canteen. “The tree here was attacked by termites and had become weak. We removed it to avert untoward incidents as many people will visit the canteen. A tree was felled in a similar manner six months ago,” he said.
The trees about to be axed are old gulmohar and rain trees. When asked whether saplings will be planted to compensate for the loss, the ACF answered in the negative. But a senior engineer who is supervising the construction of Indira Canteens said they were indeed planting saplings.
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