Standing up against unilateral tree-fellings

Roads, underpasses and other infrastructure projects might have facilitated the commuter. But often going unnoticed in the process are the huge number of trees that face the axe, causing a serious threat to a green environment. 

It is not uncommon for the civic agencies to keep constructing roads and underpasses until they make a complete mess out of it. But in May 2012, the residents of Koramangala were in for a rude shock when one morning they found several trees missing along the St John's Hospital road. 

Said a resident, Pavithra, recalling her shock: "It was horrible. I mean, how can you just uproot and cut precious trees like that just to lay a road? In today's time, when there are so many different measures available to make roads, when one can put to use the garbage and waste by processing them, this kind of an act just poses moral questions about the ethics of the organisation," said Pavithra. 

It is not just about this area. There are several such projects which continue to haunt environmentalists and nature lovers, having managed to escape the eye of the law.

 About 35-40 trees, including a few rare ones such as Mahogany were relentlessly cut for the proposed Sirsi Circle - Agara signal-free corridor project. Recently, a sandalwood tree too was felled from Lalbagh in the middle of the night, with the help of a much evident insider job. While the police is yet to establish who were behind it, one can say that the those who benefit from such acts continue to roam in broad daylight. 

“The project itself was extremely unscientific and poorly planned in nature. There was a stay order from the court too but that was clearly ignored by the authorities who anyway went ahead with their plans," said Nitin Seshadri, the then General Secretary of the Resident Welfare Association, Koramangala 3rd Block. Seshadri along with several residents and students of St John's led protests against the BDA, but all went in vain.

“You see, this only proves what moral and ethical code the organisation and its authorities posses. We as residents can only fight and protest against such atrocities. We cannot take the law in to our own hands. And eventually, it is the nature that has to suffer owing to the greed of a few,” he added.