Residents plan to move court as BBMP decides to continue tree-cutting for underpass project

Bengaluru

Residents of Bengaluru’s Surajan Das road junction were planning to move the court, as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to continue with felling of trees for the construction of an underpass. On Sunday, more than 200 residents of the area formed a human chain around the junction to prevent the felling of trees.

The BBMP has marked 25 trees near the junction for felling. So far, eight trees, which residents claim are 60-80 years old, have been cut. “Once we learnt about the cutting of the trees, we decided to protest. We held a human chain around the tree, but as soon as we left, they started cutting the trees again. Because we reached on time, they couldn’t cut them completely,” said Swathi Damodaran, a resident of the area.

She added that the residents were able to halt the work temporally after approaching the authorities. “There was no consent sought from residents and the move was not consulted with us either,” she said. Residents added that they keep a vigil to ensure that the tree-cutting does not continue.

Ranganatha Swamy, Deputy Conservator of Forests, BBMP, said the authorities have received the required permissions to cut the trees. “We have official orders, unless we are told otherwise, we can’t stop the project. But for now, the project has been halted,” he said.

The reason for authorities not consulting residents in the case of the Suranjan Das Road or other cases in the past is an amendment made to the Karnataka Tree Preservation Act, 1976. As per the 2014 amendment, the BBMP need not call for public consultation if the number of trees to be felled is less than 50.

The amendment has been challenged in the high court through a public interest litigation filed in 2018. “As per Section 6 of the Amendment Act, Section 8(3)(viii) has been amended to provide for a minimum number of trees to be felled in order for there to be a requirement for the issuance of a public notice, at an arbitrary figure of 50 trees. This arbitrary provision without any legislative safeguards has allowed the provisions of the Tree Act to be completely side-lined and abused by various stakeholders to chop huge numbers of trees with no public notice,” read the petition.

Suranjan Das Road is one of the many infrastructure projects that have been opposed by activists. Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL), which cut down more than 2,300 trees for road-widening projects on the outskirts of Bengaluru, was asked to stop work by the Karnataka high court on March 7. The HC direction came as the KRDCL was planning to cut nearly 7,500 more trees for infrastructure development.

The HC intervention came after a committee of experts from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Gandhi Krishi Vigyana Kendra (GKVK) — formed following the high court’s order to look into the KRDCL projects — submitted a report highlighting the number of trees lost on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

The committee also reduced the permission to KRDCL for cutting trees after studying the tress in the locations where infrastructure projects were underway. While the Forest department had allowed the felling of 5,297 trees, the expert committee brought the number down to 1,721.

The HC halted the project to look into the claim by KRDCL that the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act will not apply to the road-widening projects on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

While the residents of Suranjan Das junction are approaching the court, the hearing in the PIL is expected to come up for hearing on Thursday.