Children, the young and the elderly, men and women came out of their houses to form a human chain and protest, holding placards, against the tree felling taken up by the Roads and Buildings Department for road widening at Nallagandla early on Sunday morning.
Residents of the nearby localities voluntarily came onto the roads to oppose further chopping of the trees after at least 50-60 full grown trees were cut down last week. The work was for widening the road from GNT Circle up to Tellapur and link it to the Outer Ring Road.
The public outcry has forced the authorities to halt the chopping of another 100-odd trees for the moment and a forest department official assured the protesters to hold ‘public opinion’ before any further action even as GHMC and other departments washed of their hands of the issue.
“Cutting trees is cutting our own lives. When will we learn lessons from other cities? It is just a matter of time before we reach pollution levels of Delhi,” said a protesting resident. “What is the point of having a tree protection committee, which cannot protect trees? It is more for a tree-cutting committee. Is this how we deal with climate change,” asked another.
Social media too was buzz with the protests photos and videos going viral and many tagging top government officials and Ministers urging immediate action. “Wake up leaders of Telangana before Hyderabad becomes Delhi,” tweeted A. Sashidhar. “We are stealing them from children with poorly managed road development,” tweeted Angel.
“Save Nallangadla trees...save KBR Park” were trending online while CitizensforHyderabad was the popular hashtag. “We received a very good response from the residents. We will keep up our vigil till the government comes out with a sustainable public transport solution,” said P. Srikanth, a resident and an active member of the group leading the protest.
Meanwhile, Vata Foundation, the voluntary agency specialising in translocation of trees, offered to translocate the trees free of cost if necessary permits were given by the forest department as there were several open spaces nearby.
