Branches of tree cut to make hoarding visible

By Govind D. Belgaumkar

BANGALORE, NOV. 6. A beautiful gulmohar tree has lost all its branches, and stands a mute witness to man's greed at the traffic island near Ambedkar Bhavan on Miller's Road.

In an operation on Monday night, the branches of the tree were cut and transported by some persons, allegedly to make a huge hoarding behind it more visible. While the hoarding stands on railway property, the tree is located on a footpath.

People in the vicinity claim that an agency had been offering the hoarding for advertisement for the past couple of months, but there was no response as the branches of the tree

were blocking its visibility. Besides cutting the branches, the metal sheets of the hoardings were removed. An employee of a nearby hotel, Mr. Kannan, wonders whether this is a ploy adopted by the owner of the advertisement agency to avoid action against him.

In the past few months, at least half a dozen trees have been felled by advertising agencies to make their hoardings visible. Huge trees near Cauvery cinema on Sankey Road, near Oklipuram bridge, and on Airport Road have been chopped.

Fortunately, only the branches have been cut this time. An employee of private company says that the tree had scores of beautiful branches, and suspects that a novel way of ``killing a tree in phases'' has been found.

As the chopping of a tree in a single operation may attract the attention of officials of the Forest Department and the Horticulture Department of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), only the branches were cut, it is said.

It appears that advertising agencies are getting bolder by the day in the absence of strong action against them by the authorities. In the past, agencies which cut trees have been let off with a small fine by the forest authorities.

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Section  : Southern States
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