Thanks to conscientious officers like District Forest Officer Sivala Rambabu, extinction of a local variety of mango has been averted. His reluctance in giving permission to uproot trees for widening of the Gudihatnoor-Utnoor Road has saved at least 100 mango and neem trees which line the important road passing through tribal areas.
There are nearly 100 trees which are a major source of the king of fruits in the region. Villagers from at least 20 habitations on either side of the road use the locally-grown mangoes for pickles.
Indigenous variety
“We are happy the R&B has decided not to fell the mango and neem trees,” observed Boorla Ramakanth, a resident of Tosham village. “As these 30-year-old trees are the only ones belonging to indigenous variety in the area, their decimation would have resulted in the variety being lost forever,” he pointed out.
The R&B had initially planned to uproot about 150 trees along the 30-km stretch of the road between Mankapur and Utnoor and accordingly applied for permission from the District Forest Protection Committee. As uprooting of trees was against the spirit of environment protection and more importantly the spirit of Telanganaku Haritha Haram, a prestigious tree plantation programme of the State Government, Mr. Rambabu declined permission.
Though a few trees were uprooted when work on the road began, the move of the Forest officer forced the engineering officials see reason. They decided not to remove the old trees completely but carry on works by pruning those branches which were hindering smooth working of road laying with machinery.
Eco-friendly
“Yes, we have settled for this environment-friendly move,” conceded R&B Adilabad Superintending Engineer Md. Nazeer. “As most of the trees are over 1 metre away from the edge of the black top road, we decided not to cut them totally,” added Executive Engineer K. Venkat Reddy.
The trees along the road are R&B property but had lacked in protection. Over the years, unscrupulous villagers had felled at least 50 mango and neem trees to expand their agricultural fields on the road side.
