Greens see red over felling of trees

Greens see red over felling of trees
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: At the end of the road-widening project, 10,000 trees would have been axed. Is it worth it?
After 85 roads are widened, this exercise will be redundant, as more and more vehicles will come onto to the roads in future. How far will we go to expand the roads?
The end result will be a phenomenal increase in microclimate. Who will take the responsibility for it?
Have you taken a consensus from the public for chopping decades-old trees which gave Bangalore the tag of ‘air-conditioned city’?
These were some of the uncomfortable questions posed to government officials at a public consultation on ‘Road Widening Schemes of Bengaluru: Impacts and Alternatives’ on Thursday.
Senior officials of BBMP, town planning and police departments were invited by Environment Support Group, CIVIC Bangalore and Alternative Law Forum under the banner Hasiru Usiru to take up the issue of depleting green cover.
Opening the debate, P S S Thomas of PAC said it was important to take public opinion before starting projects which have a major impact on residents.
Leo Saldhana of Environment Support Group came down on the BBMP for its tree-cutting spree without any rationale and not seeking approval from the forest department in the guise of executing emergency works. “It was only after our protests in 2005 that there was some order. However, there has been no fruitful outcome as tree cutting is still rampant,’’ he said.
The members of three NGOs gave presentations on the project which they allege would never solve the traffic problem.
They contended it was possible to bring order through measures such as designated lanes and corridors; discouraging use of personal motor vehicles; higher taxes on vehicles; high parking fee; introduction of private vehicle free areas; shared transport and car pooling and incentive-based public transport.