ranches being cut off for better view of buildings

End of the green cover Branches being cut off for better view of buildings
The branches of at least three trees have been cut off for a better view of the commercial building, allegedly by the building owner or the commercial house people in Koramangala. Luckily, the trees have been spared. The incident took place in front of Heritage Fresh in Koramangala 3rd Block soon after the BBMP elections.
Some green activists of the block had complained to the BBMP, but it appears no action has been taken. If this is the situation, Koramangala and which has a lot of green cover, will lose it soon one day.
"At least now the residents must wake up and join hands with Residents' Welfare Associations to see that such incidents did not recur. I think the BBMP forest cell should number the trees in the areas with the help of respective RWAs and this would safeguard the trees to some extent," said Viswanath, a resident of Koramangala 3rd Block.
A similar incident has been reported from Indiranagar also. The trees were on 100-ft Road, right in front of CitiBank, Vodafone and Johnplayers. These buildings are close to the Sky Walk or the Foot Bridge near the Domlur flyover. Of the four old trees that were in front of these commercial houses, three were chopped off.
Whoever did it, they had cleverly planned the whole operation. First, they got some branches that were protruding towards the building removed. Maybe that was done a month ago. Then, on this pretext, all the branches were cut off, leaving only the stumps.
After a reasonable wait, the stumps too were sawed off, even though the BBMP Forest Cell had lodged an FIR a fortnight ago against the Vodafone company for allegedly chopping off the branches.
Many environmental activists were critical of the local residents who did not protest when such a grave incident was happening right in front of their eyes.
"It appears that the owner/s wanted their buildings to be seen from the basement to the top. So they allegedly organised the plot to "kill" the trees (two Gulmouhurs and one Honge). The four trees were pruned about a month back without permission, reducing them to mere stumps. Now conveniently these too have been sawed off.
"I have seen many building owners doing it in Bangalore. It's nothing new. The department said they have not issued any permission to prune, let alone cut the trees. So we should find out who's the culprit.
There are watchmen in the building premises.
It's the owners' duty to safeguard the trees in front of their premises," says Lloyd, an environment activist.
It may be recalled that three years ago a tree was chopped off at the junction of the 12th Main Road.
When the Cityplus reporter tried to contact the commercial houses, he was told that it was the BBMP who had cut down the trees. But the BBMP Forest Cell official D'Souza said, "We have not given any permission to cut down the trees. In spite of the enquiry that is going on for cutting down the branches, the whole trees have been cut down illegally. We will book the culprits. A case against the building owner too would be filed."
—Cityplus Newsdesk