BBMP pays no heed to maintenance of saplings

Bengaluru: As part of beautification of Bengaluru roads and to enhance the green cover of the city, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has been planting saplings along the newly constructed dividers in many places across the city. However, citizens claim that the saplings that are planted are poorly maintained, attributing it to the civic body’s indifference to good upkeep. 

DH interacted with several resident welfare associations, across the city to understand whether BBMP maintains these saplings.

Rakesh Mehra, a member of Hennur Taskers, said, “It is mostly a wasted effort by the BBMP to plant saplings on the divider. They are spending a lot of tax payer’s money on planting saplings in the Hennur area, which is not completed yet,” adding that some of them might have withered and died already due no regular watering and manuring. 

Speaking about the higher cost of bamboo barricades that are used to protect the sapling, Mehra stressed on the indifference of BBMP in assisting the growth of the planted saplings.

“As far as the maintenance is concerned, I have never seen the plans being watered,” he said.

Most residents feel these bamboos barricades are stolen, leaving the sapling high and dry. 

Kochu Shankar, the vice president of Residents Welfare Association in Ramamurthy Nagar said, “When they plant trees across the road or near the lakes, they most often do not take serious responsibilities in watering them or nourishing them with manure.”

He also raised concerns over the civic bodies’ inability to protect the trees with metal tree guards, owing to the risk of being eaten away by stray cattle. 

Meanwhile, Sunil Thomas, who has been residing in Horamavu for over 35 years expressed his dissatisfaction over BBMP’s inefficiency in maintaining the plants which are already grown. 

He said, “By and large, the plantation drive in the Horamavu area was conducted once. And once they were planted, the maintenance was obviously not followed through. I think once or twice, they might have watered the plants, and then it was left to grow by itself, without
pruning.”

He added, “This is very risky, particularly for a motorist to take a turn, because they are totally blindsided by the hedges grown across the median.”

The official said BBMP, on its part, shares the responsibility of maintenance of the sapling with the horticulture department.

“There is a lot of scope for improvement. We have to press in more water takers and depute more staff to maintain these stretches. We have to chalk out a plan,” said the official.