Tree felling: Officials’ callous attitude

While Bengaluru has lost most of its green cover over the years, civic agencies like Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) continue to adopt a callous attitude towards protecting trees, even in the face of several strictures from the courts. The latest controversy is over the BBMP notification for felling of 106 trees for the Namma Metro project without adopting a transparent procedure. Activists have described the notification as a sham and an eyewash, because of the discrepancies between what exists on paper and the actual ground realities. As it is, the capital city finds itself in a precarious position with an Indian Institute of Science (IISc) study revealing that Bengaluru has lost 89% of its tree cover in the past four decades. The study also predicted that the green cover will reduce to a mere 2.96% by 2020-end. The number of trees per person has gone down drastically to one tree per seven people, while the ratio should have been 1:1. Ironically, according to an RTI reply, no additional saplings were planted in the city during 2017-18 and 2018-19.

What is appalling is the manner in which these agencies are ignoring court orders with impunity. Though the Karnataka High Court had pulled up BBMP last year for issuing a defective notification for removing trees for the Metro project and had issued certain directions, they are followed more in the breach. Even an order of the high court to conduct a tree census in Bengaluru is yet to be implemented. The BDA’s attitude towards environmental issues is even worse. The agency had incurred the wrath of the Supreme Court by first claiming that about 500 trees would be felled for the peripheral road project around Bengaluru, and then revising it to nearly 34,000. While giving BDA a piece of its mind, the court had then noted that it could not “gloss over the patent contradiction” in disclosing the existence of forest land.

More recently, the apex court had denied permission to the Uttar Pradesh government to cut about 3,000 trees for road widening without first evaluating their oxygen-producing capacity. But Bengaluru’s civic agencies are impervious to such orders. As the authorities often resort to removing trees in a piece-meal fashion as an when the need arises, without making a holistic assessment, the total environmental impact of a project like the Metro remains unknown. Bureaucrats appear to be emboldened due to court’s liberal attitude towards them and it might be a good idea to send a few thick-skinned officers to jail for their deliberate act of contempt. Only such stern action can save Bengaluru from going barren.