GKVK road plan opposed vehemently at hearing

GKVK road plan opposed vehemently at hearing

Vaishalli Chandra. Bangalore

The proposal of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for a road through the green campus of GKVK does not seem to have popular support. On Wednesday, people from all walks of life — former VCs to residents to professors conducting research in GKVK — expressed their opposition to the proposal during a public hearing organised by the high court-appointed six-member expert committee, headed by PK Shetty, dean, National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS).
The proposed road, which will connect MS Palya to NH 7, will ruin the green cover, which helps research work to support farmers, many of those attending the hearing contended .
GKVK professors said that the road would affect the path-breaking experiments being conducted in the university to find solutions to farmers' problems. They said their research had gone haywire in the last couple of months due to the work on the road.
A professor, who is conducting experiments with sunflower plants, said his project was being affected due to the pollution caused by the road work. He showed pictures of healthy flowers before the road work had started as well as those affected by pollution. Sunflower was a cross-pollinated crop, and bees are vital pollinators, he pointed out. But 65 beehives had become empty after the road work commenced; the bees had not yet returned, he said.
Vasundhara Nuthan, professor, department of horticulture, said there was a fire on the university campus recently. This was a first in the university's history, she said. She said the fire had burnt down plants she had grown for experiments on a few acres of land. The flora, mainly medicinal and aromatic plants, were grown over 15 years, but they were reduced to ashes in a matter of minutes, she said. "Whom should I complain to, who is to be blamed for this?" she asked.
Praveen Kamat, spokesperson for the association of the residents of Vidyaranyapura, made a presentation to highlight the community's concern over the significant loss of green cover. Pollution had increased in the area after 600 to 800 trees were felled for the road work, he said. Vehicular traffic would increase if the road was laid, and this would only compound the problem of pollution, Kamat said.