BENGALURU: While the city is fighting to save the 800-odd trees that will be cut for the steel flyover, a little known fact is that no permission is required to cut trees in private land in 128 of the 176 taluks in the state.
Section 8 of The Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976, deals with the restriction on felling of trees but is not applicable in rural areas of 14 districts. However, the Section is applicable in urban areas — those governed by municipalities or cantonment boards.
The districts include Belagavi, Vijayapura, Kalaburagi, Ballari, Tumakuru, Kolar, Chikballapur, Dharwad, Gadag, Bidar, Raichur, Chitradurga, Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural and Mandya.
For example, while you require permission from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s tree officer to cut trees in its 198 wards, you do not require permission to cut any tree, except sandalwood and rosewood, in private land in taluks like Bengaluru North, Bengaluru South (Rajarajeshwari Nagar) and Anekal, in Bengaluru Urban district.
In Bengaluru Rural district, the Section does not apply in all the four taluks — Doddabalapur, Hosakote, Nelamangala and Devanahalli. In case of land where coffee and tea is cultivated, permission is required if the number of trees is more than 750 per hectare and more than 225 per hectare in case of rubber.
Brijesh Kumar Dikshit, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, has been writing letters to district forest officers making them aware of this provision in the Act.
“The purpose of this Act was to preserve trees on private land. But there is a misconception that you need the government’s permission to cut any tree. You don’t need permission to cut trees in 128 taluks. If any tree authority continues to give permission or deny permission, this will be considered a coloured exercise of power,” Dikshit said.
He went on to explain that this is the only Act whose provisions are applicable in different places only by notification. “It is not uniformly applicable. Everybody reads the Act, but not the notification. The notification says it is applicable only in rural areas of these 14 districts,” he said.
Asked why differential application, he said the districts which require permission for tree felling are the ones which are in Western Ghats like Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Uttara Kannada, Shivamogga and Mysuru and Kodagu. “These are where most of the forests are. But even though Mandya does not require felling permission, it is the only district that is wood-surplus. You can tell by its exports,” he said.
No environment impact study: Ananth Kumar
Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs H N Ananth Kumar has urged the state government not to go ahead with the proposed steel flyover project until a proper wider public consultation with citizen groups, experts, and environment impact assessment study is done.
In a letter to Bengaluru Development Minister K J George, Kumar stated, “Absence of environment impact assessment study is a lapse. The manner in which the project details are given out in instalments to public has created more questions than clearing the doubts.”
“The traffic congestion issues in central Bengaluru and outer Bengaluru have to be resolved with a holistic, integrated approach consisting of effective linkage of mass transport systems of rail, bus and Metro and also with infrastructure solutions,” he added.
PIL challenging flyover to be heard on Nov 2
The High Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of PIL challenging the steel flyover project for a week. The division bench of Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice R B Budihal posted the matter for November 2. The counsel for a city-based foundation, which filed the petition, requested the court for early hearing by saying that the government was proceeding in a hurried manner to commence the project.