The Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited will also transplant nearly 60 trees to widen the bypass.
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The Karnataka government is set to remove 413 trees in Bengaluru to widen a bypass road that leads to the Kempegowda International Airport. The Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL), the state agency responsible for the project, will widen the road between Belatturu Bridge and Kannamangala Cross in East Bengaluru Taluk. This road will serve as another bypass to the Bengaluru airport. Incidentally, many of these trees are decades-old and are being axed despite objection from the public. While as many as 355 will be axed, others will be transplanted in the same locality. KRDCL has requested permission from the Forest Department to remove trees and widen the road. It also wrote to the civic body, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), to carry out the tree felling and afforestation process. The KRDCL will fund the BBMP for the same. The road widening project is part of KRDCL’s larger development project of the stretch between Bestamanahalli (on State Highway 5 in Anekal taluk) and Hoskote Road (on National Highway 4 in Bengaluru East taluk). Several sections of the road will intersect with the Sarjapur-Whitefield corridor, reported the Deccan Herald. With the bypasses, the KRDCL also plans to develop the roads on the outskirts of the city in order to reduce the traffic congestion in Bengaluru. On December 5, the Bengaluru Urban division of the Forest Department had issued a public notice, allotting a 10-day deadline for citizens to raise objections against the felling of trees. Since the deadline is long over, the officials decided to commence with the tree-felling. “We did receive applications from some citizens objecting to the felling of trees,” an official from the Forest Department told TNM, without revealing further details. Three months ago, environmental activists had filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court against the tree-felling. They said that many are heritage trees, for which the KRDCL did not have the required permit. The court had then directed for the formation of an expert committee to assess if some trees could be saved from felling. The Forest Department official added that as per the expert committee’s decision, the KRDCL will have to plant 10 trees for one tree that will be cut, in the same location. The committee also said that the agency will begin the afforestation as soon as the Forest Department allots the land for the road-widening project.
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