The Inter-University Centre for Yogic Sciences, an apex body for yoga education, has chopped 40 trees, including red sanders, at the Jnanabharathi campus where Bangalore University (BU) has provided space for its campus.
The Centre is located on a 15-acre space in the Jnanabharathi campus.
BU staff and students learnt that some people were cutting trees near the Bio-Park area on campus and rushed there thinking it was tree smugglers. When they realised that it was people associated with the yoga centre, BU staff staged a protest and shooed them away. "By the time we realised that something was happening, 40 trees were cut, including red sanders and some with medicinal values," Lokesh Ram, Vice-President of BU Postgraduate and Research Scholars Union, said.
According to Bio-Park authorities, hundreds of medicinal plants were damaged. BU officials said they had no intimation. BU Vice-Chancellor Jayakara SM said, "There was no permission sought or intimation given to us." He even inspected the spot where the trees were cut.
Meanwhile, the Save Bangalore University Horata Samiti has urged the vice-chancellor to withdraw the land provided to the institute and that no space should be given to other institutes or organisations in the future.
The forum even demanded the vice-chancellor call for an emergency syndicate meeting and order an inquiry into the issue, besides lodging a police complaint. "We demand the
vice-chancellor to file a police complaint against those who have chopped several trees worth lakhs of rupees and also for damaging the saplings," stated a representation given
to Jayakara.