CNR Rao plants, BBMP chops

CNR Rao plants, BBMP chops
Bangalore, DH News Service:
Thursday, May 28, 2009, 1:30 [IST]

Shocked at hearing about the tree-uprooting drive, CNR Rao’s instant reaction was ‘My God!’ and then he wore a silence for half-a-minute.


When eminent scientist CNR Rao was planting saplings at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) campus along with Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata here on Wednesday, barely did he know that the BBMP’s tree uprooting drive was going on at the very CNR Rao Circle, named after him as a ‘mark of respect’ for his contribution to Science in India.

Shocked at hearing about the tree-uprooting drive, CNR Rao’s instant reaction was ‘My God!’ and then he wore a silence for half-a-minute. He then wanted to know, “When did it happen? I am a tree-lover. I have planted nearly 12,000 trees in the IISc premises. I am shocked. It is disgraceful that trees are uprooted for the infrastructure projects.” The scientist commented there could have been better means of developing infrastructure but not killing the trees.

The reason this time for uprooting the tree was another underpass right at the CNR Rao Circle. The tree uprooting drive was carried out on Wednesday despite many objections filed by the people living in the vicinity against the tree felling to construct an underpass.

This act caused much despair in the public eye especially to those who have filed objection against the project. Among the many who had filed their objections was an IT professional Ashwin Hegde, who resides very close to CNR Rao Circle.

No strategic plan

He said, “There is no proper strategic plan by BBMP. They first place an advertisement, which is just an eyewash and then they do not respect the objections filed by the pubic. This is just another useless underpass being proposed which is not a requirement now.”

BBMP had placed an advertisement in leading newspapers regarding their proposed plan of road widening at Hosur-Lakshar Road by felling 375 trees and planting 1,275 saplings.

The Deputy Conservator of Forest Hubert had his say: “Nearly 120 trees around CNR Rao Circle have been permitted to be uprooted. It is a project undertaken by the BBMP and will be carried out. The tree uprooting drive will be compensated by planting 400 saplings around this area.” He admitted that the BBMP had received objections but he did not give the number of objections filed.