It was a tense Monday morning as the #SteelFlyoverBeda brigade was thrown into a tizzy over the felling of a tree on the premises of the Balabrooie Guest House on Sankey Road, along the alignment of the proposed steel flyover.
However, it turned out the over 40-year-old silk cotton tree was felled as it was dead and posed a safety risk. That said, it was one of the 812 trees that had been marked for felling to make way for the flyover.
Earlier in the day, protesters dubbed the felling of the tree on Sunday night as “a stealthy move”. They planned to hold a flash protest in front of Chief Minister's home office, Krishna. However, the plan fizzled out after the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) clarified that it was not related to the infrastructure behemoth.
“The felling of this tree has been in the process from at least April now, when a tree branch had fallen on the feet of a senior cop, injuring him. Last week ,another branch fell on a passer-by, who sustained an injury to his arm. After this, it was decided to bring [the tree] down,” said Devaraj, tree officer, east division, BBMP.
Vijay Nishanth, a member of the tree committee and also part of the #SteelFlyoverbeda brigade, said the tree was indeed dead and posed a danger, and thus had to be brought down.
However, Prakash Belawadi of Citizens for Bengaluru, leading the protests against the flyover, said this demonstrated that the government could cut down a large tree, quietly and quickly, in the dead of night. “We should be vigilant at all times,” he said. Citizens for Bengaluru has now announced a 24x7 “raise alarm” call list to alert them of any such activity in future.
Officials said the
40-year-old silk cotton tree was felled as it was dead and posed a safety risk
