Palace Road's vanishing trees

Palace Road's vanishing trees

An rti query reveals the road must have 200-ODD trees, but not even A handful are found

Vaishalli Chandra. Bangalore



Palace Road had for long boasted of long stretches of greenery with huge trees forming a canopy across the street.
However with the city growing at a rapid pace and the BBMP carrying out its road widening projects, a large number of trees have been felled in the recent years. But when it comes to ascertaining the number of trees cut, the authorities and green activists more often than not disagree.
An RTI filed by one of the greens, brings out discrepancies in the claims over the number of trees cut.
As per a personal tree count survey that the activist had conducted on December 27, 2007, there were 360 trees on Palace Road, between Mysore Bank Circle and Sophia School. However, the BBMP road widening drawings showed that there were 285 trees to be cut in the process.
In the RTI submitted, the green had asked about the number of trees felled on Palace Road. The reply was 71 trees. Going by BBMP's road widening drawings, Palace Road should now have at least 214 trees lining it on its either side. But drive along the road, and one hardly gets to notice any tree.
Another question that was raised in the RTI was: "How many trees were transplanted and what is the breakup of their numbers in terms of species and age?" The response says, "Nine healthy trees were transplanted which are between the age of 15-20 years." However, there is no mention of the species of the felled trees. That aside, even if these trees had been transplanted to some other place, there should still be 205 trees on the stretch. Now where are the remaining 200-odd trees? The green had asked another question regarding the age and species of the trees. He had requested the authorities to quote figures as to how many trees of each species between 1-10 years, 10-50 years and above 50 years had been felled. The reply merely mentioned that trees felled on these roads are between the ages of 10 years to 50 years.
Speaking to DNA, E Ravindra, RFO (Range forest officer), BBMP, said, "Most trees on that stretch were aged between 20 to 50 years." He didn't want to comment on other questions as he said he needed to refer to records.