BENGALURU: In a feat that was considered impossible, two gigantic, old trees have been transplanted from Bannerghatta Road to Arakere lake bed area to make way for the Gottigere-Nagwara Metro Rail line.
The trees were pruned, treated, carefully removed and transported to the nearby Arekere area — its new home. This is the biggest ever tree transplantation exercise in the city.
It involved a 60-year-old banyan tree that was facing the axe for the construction of the Metro rail line.
A host of organisations, including BMRCL, Simplex Infrastructure (that provided cranes and earthmovers), BBMP forest cell, police, and Divya Shree Chambers were involved in the effort.
With electrical and telecom cables traversing the area, the process of transplantation was complicated. A compound wall had to be razed to the ground and an entire parking space had to be utilised in the operation. Amid high traffic concerns at Jayadeva junction, the preparation for transplantation of the great Banyan tree began on Friday.
BBMP DCF M K Cholarajappa said, “The transplanted trees will need regular care, treatment and maintenance in its new habitat for the next three years, as its entire system is affected.”The backers of this public-funded venture had to slog it out for two days, to cut the branches of the heritage tree. A 30-year old peepal tree was transplanted first, to give more space to the massive banyan tree. Nearly 5-6 truckloads of wood was collected and sent to the BBMP forest cell.
Urban conservationist Vijay Nishanth said, “This is one of the busiest roads in Bengaluru and on Sunday, we had more traffic than usual but this did not cause any traffic congestion. It was an enormous task as each branch was as big as a single tree.”
According to tree transplantation expert Vashista Jayanti, the process of preparation and moving the trees to a new location were a big challenge as this has never been done in the city before.V R Joy, Sarjapur Resident Welfare Association member, said although more money was needed, the transplantation work had to start. “Rs1.2 lakh was collected through crowd funding, however, more money is needed to take care of the trees.” Tharangini Bala, a Naturalist, said, “It is a lovely tree and am so glad for its second life but also feel bad that this junction will become barren like the others. The heat radiation in this area is high.”