Say goodbye to the rains
Something seems dangerously off about the state government’s understanding of conservation. While most Bengalureans are still worrying about the consequences of losing 800-odd trees to a steel flyover, the government now wants to hack through the fragile ecosystem of the Western Ghats to build a road. And this time, at least 30,000 trees will be lost.
The government on Tuesday confirmed that this new road – connecting Byrapura in Chikkamagaluru with Shishila in Dakshina Kannada, spanning 65 km – will cut through pristine forests of the Ghats. The project is already underway.
In December last year, the state had agreed in principle to develop a road between the two districts as an alternative to the existing highways via Shiradi and Charmadi that were often chock-a-block with vehicles.
On Tuesday, in a reply to BJP’s MK Pranesh, Public Works Department minister HC Mahadevappa said the project had now begun, and currently, the survey work was going on. The entire project (two-lane road) is expected to cost about Rs56 crore.
Mahadevappa said: “Of the 65-km stretch, 13 km will wind through Dakshina Kannada district and 52 km through Chikkamagalur district. The government has already entrusted Bengaluru-based Preethi CAD Consulting Engineers with the responsibility of preparing the detailed project report (DPR). The firm is in the process of conducting a survey in the area, and work is under progress and only after obtaining the DPR will we know the periodicity of the project.”
2 Comments
Prashanth Chandramohan
January 16, 2017 at 11:31 AMSave the trees
Rahul M
July 11, 2017 at 11:04 PMWe must create Environment protection agency independent of the govt. So called ”tree officers” are obviously not there to protect the trees as they are BBMP officers themselves. This is conflict of interest. How can a tree officer protect a tree(s), his agency (BBMP), which pays his salary) wants to fell. Such a post is designed to make it easier for the BBMP to go about tree felling, hassle free. Very very occasionally the tree officer objects to a project or proposal to fell trees. They always support the BBMP’s point of view, obviously. Then there are people paying them to get permission to fell tree opposite their shop or house(usually of costly/fancy make/design) cause its obstructing the ”view” of customers/passerby. There must be an outside agency not under the control of the govt. So all applications must be processed & permissions given by this agency if only absolutely required. Forest department is understaffed & still not the solution. Abolish the post of tree officer. This post is nothing but a sham. I hope something can be down by CFB in this regard.