BMP to green city again

BMP to green city again
Vijay Times

IF you are among those who think that Bangalore will never be the safe, green City it once was, think again.

The Forest Division of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) has now taken up a project to increase the green cover of the City. As part of the project, saplings would be planted and at the same time, road side trees that could harm the public would also be pruned.

Talking to BVT, BMP Deputy Conservator of Forests Krishna Udupadi said, "The BMP has initiated steps to plant more saplings to make the City green." Reeling out statistics on the number of branches that had been cut and the number of saplings that would be planted, he said, "About 2,059 branches in the City have been cut and 126 dried trees have been removed. The BMP has plans to plant 35,000 saplings in the current year." "Of these, 4,000 saplings were distributed to local residents on the occasion of the Kempegowda Day celebrations. About 2,000 saplings were planted under a regular drive and 3,000 medical plants have been distributed to students at Banashankri and Jogupalya." "Mahagony, Honge, Champak and Ashok saplings will also be planted in future," he added.

He informed that following complaints from the public, the BMP had already swung into action and had begun removing parts of trees that posed a threat to road users.

It may be known that construction works and road widening projects (infrastructure works) have resulted in several trees being uprooted.

The BMPs pruning drive comes at a time when residents of the City are being subjected to hardship because of fallen branches of trees.

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), with the help of NGOs, is identifying old trees and pruning them to avoid any untoward incidents .

Besides this, a taskforce has been constituted by the BMP to identify old trees on a regular basis. The branches that have been mobilised in the tree pruning drive will be disposed off in an auction held by the BMP. Those interested in taking part in the auction can contact the BMP Deputy Conservator of Forests or call 22485317.