Dhanvantri road goes bald ahead of Dasara

No shade

With neatly lined shops on one side with cool shade of trees planted along the iron-grilled compound of ‘Doddaspatre’, this road enticed many walkers, shoppers and those who came to drink in the chaos and tranquility of the heritage city. For citizens who came in to buy their daily share of fresh veggies, meat and sea food from Devaraja market, Dhanvantri road served as the entry point where they could park their vehicles under the shade of a tree and leisurely glide into shops of their choice. Dasara usually brings in a good few lakhs of visitors to this road.

But, thanks to a certain department’s over-enthusiasm in impressing the higher-ups, Dhanvantri road has lost its green cover. The result is for everyone to see. The short patch of road that hurriedly joins Sayyaji Rao Road, has turned into a oven -- preheated of course, at any time of the day barring few early morning hours.  

Nearly 10 - 12 trees which gave shade while carrying out their own process of photosynthesis to prepare food for thousands of birds, have been chopped mercilessly. The sight is sordid and ugly. The gaping trunks look like eruptions from the earth sheared to the bare of its existence.

No one seems to know how it happened, or even why it happened. Those who were at Janatha Bazar to buy medicines few days ago, saw some men hurriedly running long blades to prune the branches. “We thought they were pruning the branches. But we were shocked to see almost the entire tree gone. They didn’t have any board announcing which department they came from,” said a shopkeeper who saw the entire operation.

Barely any relief though, the road is lit up in the evening, with electric lines passing right atop the stumps. As against sight of this patch during the day, night is hardly any relief.

Who dunnit?

Though the responsibility of cutting or pruning the branches is with Department of Forests, the request has to be made by the Mysore City Corporation (MCC). This holds good for trees in public spaces. It may be recollected that seven massive trees by the road leading to railway station were reduced to nothing few months ago. The forest department had clearly said it had not carried out the operation, which was supposedly executed overnight.

When contacted in connection with Dhanvantri road trees, MCC Commissioner Raykar said: “I am unaware of this since we have been busy with Dasara. But, I can assure you that MCC didn’t request for pruning of any branches on this road in the recent past.” Pray tell us, the Mysoreans -- who dunnit, then?