Physically challenged Narayana Reddy, who is in his 50s, has been selling tender coconuts under a pipal tree on Jayanagar 11th Main for 15 years now. But now he finds himself displaced as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike felled the healthy tree for a TenderSURE project.
The civic body, which had promised not to fell healthy trees, has brought down this healthy tree, said green activist Vijay Nishanth.
For Mr. Reddy, this has affected his livelihood. He has no place to sell the tender coconuts. “It was a healthy tree and which gave ample shade. They ruthlessly felled it,” he said.
TenderSURE work on Nrupatunga Road and Jayanagar 11th Main Road has angered green activists all the more. With these two roads, however, the blame game has also begun among Jana Urban Space, which provided designs for the first phase, and the BBMP, which has taken over the project in the second phase.
Nitya Ramesh of Jana Urban Space said they were the designers for only seven of the first 12 roads selected, and were not involved in any way with the five roads now being taken up by the BBMP. “It’s the BBMP which designed the work for Nrupatunga Road and Jayanagar. For instance, on St. Mark’s Road and other roads we have made pragmatic design and engineering changes to save trees,” she said.
Vinay Sreenivasa, who is protesting against the TenderSURE project, argued otherwise. “It’s not that the first phase of the project doesn’t have issues. The design only ensures that the roots of these trees are weakened; eventually the trees will fall,” he said, and added that it was time the project was completely reviewed, with large-scale public consultation before going ahead with the development of 50 new roads under TenderSURE.
