Residents rally to save trees at Agara Lake

BMRCL has marked 29 trees in the water body to make way for metro

Y. Maheswara Reddy | NT

Bengaluru: Residents of Agara and environmental activists recently organized a protest at Agara Lake against cutting of trees inside the water body. They demanded the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL) authorities to ensure transparency on the number of trees to be felled to facilitate the construction of Metro Phase 2A between Silk Board and KR Puram.

“We are not against the construction of the Metro but the authorities should hold public consultation and ensure transparency on the number of trees to cut down for the construction of Metro Phase 2A,’’ said Rajani Santosh, an environmental activist.

She said that activists have approached the BMRCL authorities to provide details on the environmental impact. “The BMRCL authorities are not sure on the number of trees to cut down. They often change the number of trees to be cut down, stating that a detailed project report (DPR) for the Metro Phase 2A was prepared in 2019,’’ she said.

The activists said that Package 1 is slated to lose nearly 800 trees all between the Central Silk Board and Kadubeesanahalli. This includes huge raintrees, gulmohar trees on the service roads, Akash Mallige in the centre and many more beautiful trees with large canopies.

“During a recent field visit at Agara Lake, we were shocked to see that 29 trees were marked for cutting inside the Agara Lake boundary! So where was this information? Was it available to citizens? Were they consulted before their trees, lake, common spaces where to go? It is quite unfortunate that while the Metro is a Public Infra project, transparency and accountability has to be insisted on and pushed for,’’ said Vidya Dinkar, an environmental activist.

The activists said that they have been writing to the BMRCL and the forest department since lockdown 2.0 to take them through public consultation explaining the environmental impact and mitigation methods for the same. They said that the rule to compensate by planting 10 saplings in exchange of every fully grown tree cut, does not assure that the land for compensatory plantation will even be in the proximity to the area that the tree loss is from.

Meanwhile, Shaheen Shasa of Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike has questioned the need of constructing the Metro by spending crores of rupees. “The state government has already spent a considerable amount on bus lanes and cycle lanes on the Outer Ring Road as part of its plan to provide similar facilities on 12 high density corridors in and around Bengaluru. What will happen to this plan if the government goes ahead with the construction of Metro? The authorities have put up the bus lane up to 20 kms between Silk Board Junction and KR Puram,’’ Shasa said.