Re-plantation drive dries up

Re-plantation drive dries up


Y Maheswara Reddy First Published : 10 Aug 2010 01:32:06 AM IST
BANGALORE: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) much hyped programme of replanting trees has come a cropper with most of the trees replanted at Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium and Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain Park dying.
Two years ago, the BBMP had made arrangements to replant trees at these parks in the backdrop of protests by environmentalists over cutting trees to facilitate the widening of Sheshadri Road. The Palike had spent lakhs of rupees for the translocation of the trees. A few of the trees had been replanted on Bellary Road but were later removed to widen that road.
Now visitors to the Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain Park and Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium can see the dried stems of the plants. “What is the use of spending lakhs of rupees on these trees, which have no chance of survival. It is disgusting to see dried stems whenever I visit this park,” says S Muralidhar, a visitor to the Park.
“The BBMP boasts of its plan to plant lakhs of saplings in the city. I can’t understand why it has not taken any initiative to remove the dry stems. These stems are not a good sign at a place visited by a large number of school children,’’ said a government school teacher on condition of anonymity.
M Krishnappa, the deputy conservator of forests, BBMP, said that parks are not suitable places for translocation or re-plantation of trees. “The chances of survival of replanted trees are between 30 per cent and 40 per cent. The post-transplantation care plays a key role in the survival of such trees. It is better to replant trees in isolated places rather than in parks,” said Krishnappa.
He also said that a 3-metre deep pit was necessary to replant a tree. “Measures must be taken to put sufficient manure in the pit before replanting a tree,” he said.