15,000 trees to be axed for Bengaluru suburban railway project

Around 15,000 trees are estimated to be axed for the implementation of the Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project (BSRP), documents show.

Karnataka Rail Infrastructure Development Enterprises (K-RIDE), which is implementing the project, has requested the state government to provide land where it can plant more than 3 lakh saplings as part of its compensatory afforestation initiative.

Along with Namma Metro, the suburban railway project is taking away Bengaluru’s fast-depleting green cover with authorities finding fewer options to retain trees due to the nill scope of tweaking the alignment.

Some of the trees are expected to be translocated as all tree-cutting approvals require the permission of the BBMP’s tree expert committee, which was constituted by the High Court of Karnataka.

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According to officials, around 15,000 trees are standing along the four corridors of the 149-km BSRP. So far, K-RIDE has received the BBMP’s permission to axe as many as 3,145 trees along the BSRP’s Corridor 2 (Baiyyapanahalli to Chikkabanavara). It hasn’t sought permission for trees along the remaining three other corridors yet.

Dearth of land

As K-RIDE is required to undertake compensatory afforestation at the ratio of 1:10, which involves planting 10 saplings for every tree either cut or translocated, the authorities face space constraints in the city.

Officials said they are requesting the government to make available huge parcels of land as railways does not have as much vacant land.

The option being considered is to look for vacant lands owned by the BBMP, BDA, defence, etc. More so, the newly formed housing estates such as Arkavathi Layout near Yelahanka, Kempegowda Layout near Nagarbhavi and Kengeri and Sir M Visvesvaraya Layout near Nagarbhavi are likely to be used for afforestation activity.

Sources said K-RIDE had already written to the BDA to earmark patches of land for planting saplings. It has also requested other agencies to permit afforestation as it is expected to plant 3 lakh saplings.

According to K-RIDE, the alignment of the suburban railway corridor cannot be changed to save trees as it runs almost parallel to the existing railway track on the adjacent railway land.

“Two tracks of BSRP are being laid on one side of the existing railway track. Therefore, the trees standing at the embankment of the proposed tracks including the proposed station areas between are getting affected,” an official said.