Once a tree cutter, now a tree saviour

Devaraj Lakshmaiah, 48, is a professional tree cutter. He has axed more than 10,000 trees in Bengaluru for various road-widening projects. He has now vowed to translocate trees.

The change of heart came dramatically when a few members of Sarjapur Residents Welfare Association were interviewing him for a documentary on translocation of trees. They had also sought his help to prune and translocate a tree from Sarjapur Main Road to a school in Gunjur.

“I realised my folly during the interview. I realised that trees, too, have the right to live. I have decided that I will not cut down good trees, but only dead ones,” he told DH.

Lakshmaiah has been a tree cutter all his life. He earns Rs 500 a day for pruning or cutting down trees. Two months ago, some residents of Sarjapur Main Road contacted him when he was cutting trees on Sarjapur-Attibele Main Road. “They requested me to prune the branches of four trees and help translocate them. When they were filming the whole exercise and I was part of it, I realised my mistake. Some days ago, a farmer from Chandapura contacted me to cut down a tree on his farmland. I refused and suggested that he translocate the tree. But the farmer was not interested and wanted the tree to be removed at any cost. I then offered to translocate the tree. I spent Rs 11,000 from my own pocket and got the tree translocated to a ground in Sarjapur,” he said.

That is not all. Lakshmaiah is also spreading this message to his colleagues in Kolar, Chikkaballapur and Kanakapura. They call him mad but that has not dampened his spirits.

“There is more demand for tree cutting than translocation. But things will change gradually. Some people ask me for help. I have not stopped pruning trees,” he said and added that his earnings had dropped drastically.

Members of Sarjapur Residents’ Welfare Association are looking for ways to help him. “We helped Devaraj change his attitude and now we are trying to do as much as we can. He is a self-made man and does not want any monetary help from us. The RWA has a plan to translocate some more trees in the area to grounds and educational institutions to save them from being axed for road-widening. We will hire Devaraj. We are also telling other residents about him so that more people seek his help and save trees in the city,” said Joy V R, secretary, Sarjapur RWA.