Two trees felled in Jayanagar

The Times of India carried this article today:


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It resulted in the said tree being chopped:


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But the report is saddled with inaccuracies. 4 years ago there was an empty plot of land at the spot where the Prestige Sapphire building stands today on 9th Main Road (stretch between III Block Circle and Ramakrishna Nursing Home intersection) in Jayanagar III Block. The said tree itself stood on the footpath in front of that land and posed no danger to motorists. The road at this spot narrowed and curved to the left. The builder reduced the width of the footpath and left the tree stranded in the road. I wrote to the builder fearing that the tree was in line to be felled. The builder responded saying that it was the BCC that had "acquired" the footpath, whatever that meant. Subsequently, till yesterday, the tree had been standing in the same way with the space on either side being used for parking by the occupants of the building.

While it is true that the road was narrower at this point than the rest of the stretch of this road, by leaving the tree exposed instead of being nestled within the footpath, the builder or the BCC, whosoever's idea it was, left motorists at risk. The road was not widened in the last 15 days as per the police's comment in the report.

For four years no motorist came to danger because of the tree. With all due respect to the deceased, would it be possible for the motorist to have met with fatal injuries if he had not been driving at reckless speeds, as is very likely given that the time of the mishap was 4 AM?

Within hours of the above incident the tree was chopped and now its stump has been cordoned off in a haphazard way which is likely to result in more accidents.

In an unrelated incident, a day prior to this, another fully grown tree has been chopped on the same road, just 50 metres away, on the footpath in front of the Kamala Garden School.


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Enquiries with residents nearby revealed that a bough had fallen on a pedestrian. There were conflicting reports on whether the pedestrian had only sustained injuries or had died. Residents also reported that the authorities, for some inexplicable reason, plan to chop all the trees on this road.

Just a year ago, this stretch of road was entirely covered by the canopies of fully grown trees. In the mindless commercialization that is underway presently, half the trees have disappeared and the road bears a barren look.

Photographs: The Bangalorean