Tagore Circle underpass to claim 73 trees

Tagore Circle underpass to claim 73 trees
Bangalore, May 26, DHNS:

It is official. The Tagore circle underpass would claim 73 trees and the process of chopping them has already begun.

Sending a shock wave among the residents of Basavanagudi, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) started cutting down tree branches near the Basavanagudi Club just a few yards away from the Tagore Circle Underpass, on Wednesday morning.

The morning walkers of Basavanagudi were in for a rude shock when they noticed the BBMP team chopping off the branches of a Gulmohar tree that had adorned the road. The news of the cutting spread across the area and a good number of people reached the spot.
The agitated crowd lodged a protest with the BBMP officials and tried to prevent the contractor who got the assignment to cut the trees.

Later, the contractor by name Mohammed showed them the authorisation letter to chop the trees to the local residents and asked them to let him do his work. Angered over the tree-felling, a local resident Sumathi said, the BBMP hid all the facts from the local residents and never revealed that 73 trees would go. Another resident Chandrashekhar said initially people were told that only 12 trees would be chopped, but now it is clear that six times more than the declared number of trees would be felled.

“This is not only lying to the people but cheating the residents too. We strongly oppose it,” said Chandrashekhar. It was learnt that the BBMP gave the contract of cutting trees to Mohammed for Rs 2.5 lakh. He has been asked to fell the trees in one month’s time.

However, a BBMP official said there are no plans right away to cut the trees but only the branches of trees have been cut near the Basavanagudi Club to prevent any accidents during monsooon.