There is no wisdom in Lalbagh protest

There is no wisdom in Lalbagh protest

Basavaraj Itnaal

The Namma Metro rail alignment necessitates felling of trees and acquisition of land belonging to the Lalbagh botanical gardens. Many Bangaloreans have vehemently protested against cutting of trees in Lalbagh. Earlier, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) had also proposed to cut nearly 3000 trees to make a road through Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra (GKVK) campus. Environmental expert AN Yellappa Reddy spoke to Basavaraj Itnaal about balancing development with environmental issues. Your opinion of the vehement protest against tree felling in Lalbagh for the metro? There is no wisdom in it. The protesters assume that a huge mass transit system like metro rail has no environmental benefits. The mass transport system reduces number of cars on the roads and hence reduces emission of hydrocarbons. When we compare this benefit with the loss of a few trees, the issue of metro rail wins. Further, all the trees that are going to be felled are eucalyptus trees which are neither a rare species nor endangered. Does the same logic hold good for BBMP felling trees in GKVK campus? No. BBMP never consulted the residents before deciding to fell trees in the GKVK campus. More than 3,000 trees were to be felled and there was no public consultation. But in case of metro rail, the project has gone through a legitimate process of environmental impact study and public hearing. If there was a public hearing, how come the protestors are on the streets? The government had invited everyone, especially the activists to the public hearing but few turned up. Those who turned up did not raise objections then. Now suddenly they have woken up and are protesting. Every engineering project has environmental cost. But there seems to be a problem in balancing development with environmental impact. Why is it so? It is not very difficult. In Jnanabharati campus of Bangalore University, we have replicated bio-diversity of Western Ghats by planting 3.5 lakh trees since 2001. It has fixed 27,000 tonnes of carbon so far. Trees can be planted and transplanted. We should remember that like people, trees too die. In a given situation, we should choose the most viable option. If you want no trees to be cut, then forget infrastructure development. It is true that more often than not, the money bags behind a project play a major role in manipulating environmental studies. But, for a change to happen people should first take interest in going to public hearings and getting their dissent recorded.