Although felling of trees on the lands acquired for developmental programmes, including construction of irrigation projects is inevitable, many a time engineers executing such projects feel the pain of getting trees chopped, particularly the old ones.
However, the joy of ‘rebirth’ or rejuvenation of a tree after its translocation prompted by such a developmental work, particularly after losing hopes over its rejuvenation is beyond description even in the best of adjectives to the engineers at whose behest such relocation takes place. One such instance of despair giving way to joy has taken place in the case of a nearly 70-year-old peepal (sacred fig) tree relocated from the bed of Medigadda barrage of Kaleshwaram project to its banks.
Unwilling to chop the solitary grown-up tree in the middle of the barrage bed, even the contractor agency left it untouched while constructing the structure. Knowing well that the tiny ‘island’ like formation, created due to excavation work, with the peepal tree standing on it majestically would collapse (submerged) in the barrage water after it is impounded, Engineer-in-Chief of the project N. Venkateshwarlu got it translocated to a safe place on the banks of the barrage with the help of an agency from Hyderabad having expertise in such work.
According to the project engineers, the tree was relocated after it was decided to build up water level in the barrage last year. They gave up hopes since the tree failed to rejuvenate for long. However, their joy knew no bounds when they noticed the rejuvenation of the tree with a couple of small branches shooting up from its trunk.
