The move by the Highways Department to fell a tree on the Bargur hills for road widening works has met with resistance from the people, as it is home to eight parrots.
The department has taken up works to widen the Anthiyur – Kollegal Road till Kargaegandi, which is located along the inter-State border in Karnataka. Works have been taken up in three phases and trees have been identified for removal to enable widening of the road.
The tree housing the parrots is located three km from Varattupallam. While this was also marked out for felling, the local people, environmentalists and a tribal people’s association have objected to it.
A campaign has been started for protecting the tree so that the parrots could continue to live on it. Messages on social media went viral, asking the Highways Department not to cut the tree, and instead make changes in the road widening plan at that particular spot.
The message said the Western Ghats had a large number of parrots, but the numbers had reduced sharply.
V.P. Gunasekaran, president of Tamil Nadu Tribal Peoples’ Association, told The Hindu petitions were submitted to the Forest and Highways departments, asking them to avoid felling the tree.
