BENGALURU: Within 24 hours, 2,835 people signed a petition against the railway department’s request to cut 368 trees for a commercial project at Cantonment. The campaign -- Stop Butchery of 368 Mature Trees at Cantonment Railway Station -- was initiated by Heritage Beku, a citizens group, on Change.org on Monday. The target is to reach 5,000 signatures and hand over the same to the BBMP forest wing, which has called for objections and suggestions in this regard.
Talking about the petition, urban conservationist Vijay Nishanth said the Biodiversity Management Committee will also conduct spot visits to the place. “Some of the portions have already been concretised at Cantonment Railway Station in Vasanth Nagar. Now, we will push for a physical consultation regarding the objections call from Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for tree cutting. Our primary demand is that the railway department should not disturb the tree canopy and biodiversity,” said Nishanth.
Greens are angry at the railway department as it had sent a requisition letter to the BBMP forest division seeking permission stating that it wants to remove trees to build a commercial project.
“When they knew a commercial project here requires felling 368 trees, including old-growth ones, they should have altered the plan or just dropped it. It’s good that we have a tree committee in the BBMP which mandates every household, industry, organisation to seek permission and the committee follows procedures including public consultation, else the trees would have been axed just like that,” said an activist.
On Friday, the BBMP forest wing published a notification calling for objections, suggestions and comments from the public regarding the removal of trees at Vasanth Nagar Railway Colony in Cantonment. Following the notification, there has been resentment among greens over the railway department’s action.