Eleven trees to be chopped for Metro

Eleven trees to be chopped for Metro
Saturday April 14 2007 11:07 IST

BANGALORE: Eleven trees on the M G Road boulevard will be cut down, on Sunday to make way for Namma Metro. These eleven trees to be axed first, are mainly flowering and fruit-yielding trees. ‘‘Coral, Mango, Jamun, Ashok and Peltaforum are the trees that will be cut for the immediate requirement of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation.

The trees that will be cut mainly consists of native fruit-yielding, flowering trees and ornamental trees,’’ said Krishna Udpudi, tree officer of BBMP.

According to the Centre of Ecological Studies, Indian Institute of Science (IISC) botanist H S Suresh, ‘‘The cutting down of native trees will definitely be a great loss as their growth rate is slow. Indigenous trees or native trees like Mango, Banyan, Jackfruit are slow growers but contain a large biota in them. Native trees have a large canopy, thus sustaining other living beings in them at the same time giving enough shade and maintaining temperature equilibrium.’’

‘‘The only way to restore the greenery is to plant native saplings simultaneously. For a tree to grow and form a boulevard like one on M G Road, it will take about 40 to 50 years of time,’’ added H S Suresh.

The BMRCL has already numbered the trees that will be cut.

To compensate for the loss of green cover, the BMRCL has made arrangements for large scale afforestation. Talking about the number saplings to be planted, managing director of BMRCL V Madhu said, ‘‘The BMRCL will ensure that the greenery will be balanced. For every tree that will be cut, we will plant 100 saplings in return. A total number of 15,000 saplings will be planted by the end of the Metro Project.’’