Vanishing green cover

Vanishing green cover
Bengaluru







Article Rank










[Click To Enlarge]

Alarm bells are ringing for Bengaluru with its green cover vanishing rapidly. It is feared that over the next three years, the city will lose another 5,000 hectares, says Amit S. Upadhye With proper ‘ planning we can avoid cutting trees by at least 50 per cent. As per plans, about 70 trees were iden- tified for felling when the Malleswaram underpass was being built. But fol- lowing our interven- tion, only 18 trees were chopped. — S.G. Neginhal, retd forest officer The government must make it mandatory to have fewer vehicles on the road at a time. Promoting car pool- ing and use of mass transport sys- tems will help to a grteat extent in reducing pollution. — Shiva Mallu, environment activist ‘ Citizens have to be sensitised about the importance of trees in an urban set-up. There are several citizens who want trees in front of their houses to be chop- ped only because of the leaf falling there. — Suresh B.A., wildlife activist
Nature lovers will be heartbroken to hear this.

The city has lost nearly 18 per cent of its green cover in just the last six years. Greenery was spread over 28,959 hectares of Bengaluru in 2002. Today less than 17,000 hectares have plants and trees in the city.

Worse still, it is feared the city will lose another 5,000 hectares of green cover over the next three years considering the number of developmental projects which have been planned for it during this period.

Surprisingly between 1992 and 2002 Bengaluru lost less than 4,000 hectares of vegetation, prompting tree lovers to point an accusing finger at urban planners, who they say failed to balance development with ecological concerns in the years afterwards. “Widening roads at the cost of trees defies logic,” says S. Sudhira, a researcher from the Indian Institute of Science.

“If the roads are widened, it is obvious that more vehicles will come on them. This will lead to more carbaon emission, which in the absence of trees, will have nowhere to go but into the atmosphere, creating more pollution. Ultimately we will end up creating more heat islands in Bengaluru,” he warns.

In his view when roads are widened people will be encouraged to use personalised transport, ultimately leading to more traffic congestion.

“Around 8 per cent of vehicles on the city’s roads are four-wheelers. Two wheelers account for 32 per cent. A large number of commuters prefer to walk or use public transport. The trees which were planted on the roadsides were meant to give shade to pedestrians, who are still found on the roads in big number,” Mr Sudhira explains.

Going by this logic, nature lovers would prefer the government to restrict the number of vehicles on city roads and leave the trees alone.