Race Course Road loses its pristine green cover

Race Course Road loses its pristine green cover
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Next time you go through Race Course Road, don’t expect to see any avenue trees as the century-old heritage trees were finally cut down to make way for road widening, on Saturday night.
Nearly 30 full grown trees were reduced to stumps on the road from Basaveswara Circle to Turf Club main gate in a night-long operation carried out by the BBMP forest cell. The tree cutting has ended up damaging the footpaths and the compound wall of the RC College.
The move comes even after the BBMP and traffic police had planned several alternatives to retain the tree cover by creating tree medians and physical translocation of heritage trees from the Race Course and the connecting Sheshadri Road.
Large trees on the road, that have stood for over a hundred years and witnessed the metamorphosis of the Garden City into a concrete city, are now gone. What were once mulberry and vegetable fields are now transformed into the turf club with many highrise buildings.
According to Arun Prasad, research head of Discover Bengaluru, an organisation engaged in studying the city’s history, the Race Course Road was a connecting lane running across old Bangalore Central Jail, where jail inmates themselves cultivated mulberry and other vegetables.
“During the later part of the 18th century, the mulberry leaves cultivated in the central jail premises used to cater to the needs of silk worm rearers in Chennapatna and Ramanagaram.
In 1920, the Maharaja of Mysore donated land for the Turf Club of Bangalore and the road was named Race Course Road.
“Bangalore is losing its old-world charm. The greenery, water bodies and heritage trees are the first victims of any development,” he pointed out. Environmentalists are also unhappy about the swift tree-cutting operation. Rohan D’Souza, member of Hasiru Usiru, an urban eco-organisation, pointed out the civic agency was supposed to consult ecologists before grounding the trees.
“There was a proposal to retain these trees by converting the tree line into a median, thus allowing autorickshaws and pedestrians to use one part and heavy vehicles the other part.”
BBMP Forest Cell officials, however said the trees could not be relocated as their roots were weak. “Several cables pass beneath the tree roots and consequently the ground holding capacity of the trees was reduced,” an official said.
He also pointed out that the idea of installing tree medians could not be implemented on Race Course Road, as more than 40,000 vehicles use the road every day. Race Course Road loses its pristine green cover
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Next time you go through Race Course Road, don’t expect to see any avenue trees as the century-old heritage trees were finally cut down to make way for road widening, on Saturday night.
Nearly 30 full grown trees were reduced to stumps on the road from Basaveswara Circle to Turf Club main gate in a night-long operation carried out by the BBMP forest cell. The tree cutting has ended up damaging the footpaths and the compound wall of the RC College.
The move comes even after the BBMP and traffic police had planned several alternatives to retain the tree cover by creating tree medians and physical translocation of heritage trees from the Race Course and the connecting Sheshadri Road.
Large trees on the road, that have stood for over a hundred years and witnessed the metamorphosis of the Garden City into a concrete city, are now gone. What were once mulberry and vegetable fields are now transformed into the turf club with many highrise buildings.
According to Arun Prasad, research head of Discover Bengaluru, an organisation engaged in studying the city’s history, the Race Course Road was a connecting lane running across old Bangalore Central Jail, where jail inmates themselves cultivated mulberry and other vegetables.
“During the later part of the 18th century, the mulberry leaves cultivated in the central jail premises used to cater to the needs of silk worm rearers in Chennapatna and Ramanagaram.
In 1920, the Maharaja of Mysore donated land for the Turf Club of Bangalore and the road was named Race Course Road.
“Bangalore is losing its old-world charm. The greenery, water bodies and heritage trees are the first victims of any development,” he pointed out. Environmentalists are also unhappy about the swift tree-cutting operation. Rohan D’Souza, member of Hasiru Usiru, an urban eco-organisation, pointed out the civic agency was supposed to consult ecologists before grounding the trees.
“There was a proposal to retain these trees by converting the tree line into a median, thus allowing autorickshaws and pedestrians to use one part and heavy vehicles the other part.”
BBMP Forest Cell officials, however said the trees could not be relocated as their roots were weak. “Several cables pass beneath the tree roots and consequently the ground holding capacity of the trees was reduced,” an official said.
He also pointed out that the idea of installing tree medians could not be implemented on Race Course Road, as more than 40,000 vehicles use the road every day.