Mysuru’s Hyder Ali road to bloom pink with Tabebuia saplings

Last year on April 13, 2025, 40 Peltophorum species trees were chopped on Hyder Ali road.

Mysuru: It is exactly a year since about 50 year old 40 lush green Peltophorum species trees with yellow flowers were chopped by the tender holder of Mysore City Corporation for widening of Hyder Ali road between SP office circle and Kalikamba temple in Mysuru. Now the widening work is completed.

Mysore City Corporation has made provision by leaving spaces, digging holes to plant 123 saplings on either side of the road and on the median and it will be a pink road soon.

MCC Superintendent Engineer Manjunath informed that they have widened the road from about 11 meter to 30 meter, with 2.5 meter median for a stretch of 360 meters at the cost of Rs 3.8 Crore. The road will be formally inaugurated after they install ornamental poles with LED lights along the median.

The work is being taken up from the SST grant of Narasimharaja constituency MLA Tanveer Sait.

MCC Assistant Executive Engineer (Horticulture) P K Mohan Kumar informed that, they have planned to plant pink Tabebuia rosea saplings in order to beautify the road.  These plants have vertical roots and do not affect the road. They will start bearing flowers in three years. They are even planting 1000 bougainvillea seedlings along the median, he said. 

They have made provision to plant 40 trees along the compound of Karnataka Police Academy, 50 on the median and 33 towards SP office road.

Parashuramegowda of Parisara Balaga said, "they should have planted varieties of saplings including Mimusops elengi, Aphanamixis polystachya, Putranjiva roxburghii, Bauhinia variegata/purpurea, Ficus Benjamina, Alstonia Scholaris, Wrightia Tinctoria, Holarrhena pubescens, Lagerstroemia speciosa, Memecylon umbellatum- Anjan which support multiple creatures on Hyder Ali road."

Mohan Kumar said that they are planting a variety of species in parks. On this, they are planting Tabebuia mainly to beautify the road, he said. 

Another environmentalist said that bushes are needed for the median to avoid glare of lights of vehicles coming from the opposite direction.

They should avoid trees on the median, to prevent unnecessary chopping of the branches that may later brush with buses and lorries; or even chopping those trees for any development works.

Even as they have planted Azadirachta indica species - neem - trees n the median on NH-275 -Mysuru ring road, PWD-National Highway, Mysuru division have sought permission to chop about 10-year-old 48 such trees on median to build a flyover with the pretext of improvement of a black spot at Devalapura cross junction. Two public hearings remained inconclusive. Now the Forest department has extended the deadline upto April 10 to submit written objections. 

Sindhuvalli Akbar of Parisara Balaga said, "Officials should lay emphasis on environment protection whenever they take up developmental work. We lost 50 year old trees for this Hyder Ali road project. Now even if they plant saplings, it will take another 40 years to grow that big."

Forest department had permitted to cut trees under Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976, for road widening with  the pretext of easing traffic congestion. MCC had paid Rs 7.5 lakh to the Forest department to plant ten trees in place of one tree cut (1:10). When asked about where were those 400 saplings planted, ACF, Mysuru division Ravindra said that they have already planted those compensatory trees in BEML and Saptharushi layouts when they planted 3600 saplings of Mahogany, Neem, Indian Beech tree among others.

It was on April 13 2025 those 40 Peltophorum species trees were chopped on Hyder Ali road. There was a huge public outcry. Environmentalists and people from all sectors protested and even held candle light vigil.