Timber mafia's GREEN LOOT

Timber mafia's GREEN LOOT

Activists are suspecting foul play in the large-scale felling of trees in the city

Sudipa Chakraborty. Bangalore

A timber mafia is looting Bangalore of its green wealth under the ruse of building the city's infrastructure, greens have alleged.
Though the government and the corporation have always pointed to factors like road widening, construction of flyovers and buildings and recently the metro work as the necessary reasons behind cutting of trees, the 'green groups' in the city have a different tale to tell.
They point out that the city earned the sobriquet of Garden City for its innumerable gardens. But in the last few years, the city has been losing its green cover at an alarming rate.
According to the greens, the infrastructural growth is a convenient alibi being used by the timber mafia to rake in crores of money.
While the BBMP claims that a paltry 1,600 trees have been felled for various infrastructural projects including the metro, the environment groups' estimate puts the figure at around 12,000 trees.
Talking to DNA, Justice MF Saldanha said, "Tree felling in Bangalore is a part of a huge racket. It is unmitigated corruption on the part of the timber mafia in collusion with the BBMP."
According to him, most of the trees like mahogany, rain trees and other flowering trees cost around lakhs of rupees but the BBMP sells them for a song. "While the BBMP would sell these trees for Rs 3,000 each, their actual market value runs up to Rs15 lakh," he said.
"The tree contractors have to pay a huge amount of money as bribe to the BBMP to cut and sell these trees to timber merchants. The timber merchants, in turn, earn crores of rupees. This is why they are so keen on cutting trees in Bangalore."
Kathyani Chamaraj from the Citizens Voluntary Initiative for the City (CIVIC), Bangalore said: "Entire stretches of Sheshadri Road and KR Road have lost their beautiful green cover. I witnessed the sale of a rain tree for just Rs3000 last month near Nanjappa circle. We have our suspicion that the timber mafia is making crores of rupees by cutting trees in the name of infrastructure. The whole thing is a big racket."
According to Leo Saldanha from the Environment Support Group, there is a violation of the Karnataka Tree Protection Act. He said, "We are going to initiate appropriate action against the large-scale felling of trees. The speed at which trees in Seshadripuram have been felled, shows that things are not right."
GD Dasarathi of the Hasiru Usiru group said more than 300 trees have been cut on Palace Road. "It is surprising to see that there is a marked difference in the figure given by the BBMP and the figure that most of the environment groups provide, when it comes to the total number of trees cut down. Any tree which is more than 50 years old and less than 10 years old is not counted by BBMP. They assume these are dead and do not include them in the list of trees felled. We are definitely suspecting foul play," he added.
According to a High Court order passed during the tenure of Justice Saldanha, every tree that is felled needs to be replaced by two saplings. The BBMP says that they have replaced around 2 lakh saplings this year; the environment groups express their disagreement. As Justice Saldanha said, "I have repeatedly written to the BBMP and the state government, but they have failed to follow the court orders."