Already Losing Its Greenery, Bengaluru Is Making It Worse By Allowing More Trees To Be Cut Down Easily

Opposition has been growing against the Karnataka government's proposal to amend the Karnataka Tree Preservation Act of 1976, which will add 22 more new species to the existing list of 25 species which can be felled without permission.

Environmentalists and citizen groups in Bengaluru and across the state have already come up against the move which they say will adversely affect the ecological balance, especially in the urban areas.

BCCL

According to the proposal introduced in the state legislature earlier this month, BBMP or any other governmental agency, will not require the permission of the Forest Department to chop off these trees.

The trees listed in the amendment include coconut, gulmohar, eucalyptus, silver oak, sausage tree, subabul, sapota, Indian cork tree, copper pod, mast tree, paradise tree, african tulip etc.

BCCL

Urban conversationalist and environmentalist Vijay Nishanth said the amendment is a clear indication that the government is succumbing to the pressure of the timber mafia.

"The government is saying that they are doing this to make it easy for the farmers to cut the trees. But it is clear from the list of trees that it is done only for the timber lobby. The amendment clearly says, 'trees grown in his land' but who is growing trees like African Tulip in rural areas? These are mostly grown in urban areas," Nishanth told Indiatimes.

Another activist Priya Chetty Rajagopal who started an online petition said Bangalurinas will come together and oppose the amendment and will make sure that it is not passed.

BCCL

This is not the first time cutting down of trees have become a contentious issues in the Karnataka capital. The IT hub has in the recent years lost a significant portion of its green cover, which made the Garden City of India, mostly to infrastructure projects. According to a study published in 2017, in the past one decade Bengaluru's tree count has come down by around 18,000.

Between 2008-09 and 2016-17 about 17,964 trees were cut for road widening, constructing flyovers and for other various projects. As per a BBMP forest department abstract, Namma Metro caused felling of 2840 trees, and different development projects led to the felling of 15,124 trees.

BCCL

The steep fall in numbers have triggered panic among activists and some residents who went out of their ways to protect their trees like translocating those marked to be cut down.

However the biggest achievement of the citizen awakening is the government scrapping the proposed steel flyover project which would have seen hundreds of trees fallen.