Green Minute News
Bengaluru’s fragile green cover to decimate further for widening of roads, says research study.
With the peripheral roads in Bengaluru slated for widening, an independent environmental impact assessment (EIA) made by Azim Premji University has revealed that there will be a huge loss of tree cover. The proposed widening work, covering a distance of 152.03 kilometres, will result in a whopping loss of 8561 at six stretches in the outer areas of the city.
The study done by researchers – Seema Mundoli, Ranjini Murali and Harini Nagendra between Feb 29- March 6, this year has revealed that more than 8,500 trees will join the felling list that includes even heritage trees. Recently, D T Devare of Bangalore Environment Trust and Vijay Nishanth of Project Vruksha.com presented these findings as new evidence in the Karnataka High Court as part of the PIL (filed by BET) hearings on felling of trees for major infrastructure projects in Bengaluru.
With Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL) failing to get an EIA done, albeit the preliminary work on identification and marking of trees has been done. In fact, a preliminary survey reveals trees have already been felled. Researchers say trees have been marked while some are already cut or lopped off even before the project has taken off. The road widening project feasibility reports fails to provide any information on the environmental impact of the project.
NO IMPACT STUDY DONE
One of the researchers Seema Mundoli told Green Minute, “Since no environmental impact assessment had been done, we took a look at the project feasibility reports to understand what kind of measures are proposed to mitigate the adverse environmental impacts. Our assessments are based on media reports as also ground realities. Media reports say around 8,561 trees will be felled over 152.03 km but when we checked the six peripheral stretches, we found that much more than 8500 trees will need to be felled for the road widening project.”
The KRDCL proposed projects include conversion of existing two lane roads to four lanes and four to six lanes at six major stretches and they are from Budigere Cross to Mylanahalli, Nelamangala to Madure, then Madure to SMVIT cross on Devanahalli Road, Kanchugaranahalli to Jigani, Bannerghatta to Besthamanahalli and from Besthamanahalli to Hoskote.
The EIA study done by researchers of Azim Premji University states, “On stretch 2, we counted all the trees from Nelamangala to Madure, while we intensively counted trees in the section from Besthamanahalli (near Anekal) to Attibele (coming within stretch 6) and a five km section from Bidadi to Jigani (coming within stretch 4). A civil society organisation wherein a member of Voice of Sarjapur too conducted an independent survey along a 13 km section on stretch 6 which they have shared with us. We have included their survey in our report too.”
MANY TREES ALREADY FELLED
In their field survey, researchers also found that several old and large trees have already been felled or lopped even before the project has begun. In fact, 51 trees have been felled in the stretch between Kanchugaranahalli and Jigani. In this stretch, they found around 1,000 trees had been marked for cutting. So they say the actual numbers of trees that will be felled will much higher than what has been reported in the media.
Now what will be the threat to the city which is already facing many problems due to unsustainable development? The study outlines that it is not just loss of tree cover, there will be formation of heat islands across the city, it will be a threat to lakes, as also the city’s biodiversity. Added to this, there will be precious loss of spiritually important ashwathkattes and finally, reduction in carbon sequestration
LOSS OF HERITAGE TREES
Apart from this, on a 15 km stretch between Madure and Nelamangala, the researchers say they counted 206 banyan trees. These also included massive specimens with girths of 17.7 m and 14.9 m that are also on the felling list. The widening project is targeting 15 sacred ashwathkattes which have been identified for removal. The loss of heritage trees is immense and this cannot be replaced by planting saplings. Researchers say heritage trees are essential, sacred, cultural and community spaces for local residents.
Bengaluru supports a wide range of species in its biodiversity habitats and some of them are endangered. The road project will have adverse impact on endangered wildlife species in Anekal Reserve Forest which connects Bannerghatta National Park, and Junnasundra Mini Forest. Endangered species like slender loris, palm civet and Indian jackal will be disturbed. Not just these, the widening will affect and impact 14 lakes including Varthur and Madure kere.
The road widening project, researchers conclude, will destroy important, essential patches of greenery which can never be compensated by planting saplings or even transplanting trees. Street trees are the lungs of Bengaluru as they clean the air of harmful pollutants and Suspended Particulate Matter that causes breathing disorders and reduces life expectancy. “Trees on streets help to reduce the temperature of road surfaces by 20°C and air temperature by 3-5 °C and sequester carbon. When heritage trees are lost, the historical and social links between the city and its residents are erased. As Bengaluru is expanding into peripheral areas, these widening projects must be planned with care.,” the study concludes.