Bengaluru: How forest dept allowed KRDCL to cut 1,676 trees amid lockdown

Days before the BBMP ordered the felling of 165 trees, the forest department sanctioned the clearance of 1,676 trees for KRDCL’s road-widening project when the lockdown was in force.

The Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL) proposed to develop and widen roads from Kanchugaranahalli to Jigani, Anekal to Hoskote via Attibele-Sarjapur and finally from Hoskote to the Kempegowda International Airport.

After permitting the clearance of 1,406 trees in March, it has now emerged that the Deputy Conservator of Forests (Bengaluru Urban) had issued three orders dated May 6 allowing KRDCL to rip away 1,676 trees, including translocation of 94 of them.

Interestingly, the orders noted that KRDCL had not followed the rules in cutting trees as per the previous permit. “The user agency is removing trees meant for translocation. Therefore, first translocate," it advised.

The document did not directly refer to the cutting of the trees, but gave permission only to "transport” the timber.

Sidramappa M C, the then deputy commissioner who signed the order, said the department cannot give permission to fell the trees. “They are roadside trees. They don’t come under Karnataka Tree Preservation Act,” he pointed out. “But we have visited the sites and tried to save some of them by translocation.”

He added: “We have strictly instructed KRDCL officials not to cut trees without completing translocation.”

No accountability

In March, the department had approved the clearance of 1,406 trees and translocation of 150. The move surprised environmental activists who pointed to several anomalies in the procedures adopted by the officials.

Though a public hearing was conducted in January, activists said it was a sham. “Except for the number of trees, nothing was explained to us. Officials evaded every question by stating that the tree committee will scrutinise the issue further,” said Deepanjali Nayak from the Voice of Sarjapura.

In the following days, the forest department limited the jurisdiction of the high court-appointed tree committee to the BBMP limits, removing the last layer of protection for the trees.

“The court asked the government to explain the reason to curtail the committee’s powers, but the lockdown was enforced before the matter could come up for hearing. The department should have waited for the court orders before felling even a single tree,” a forest department source said.