Citizens, activists oppose felling of trees for road widening

25 trees to be axed on Manasagangotricampus

Citizens and activists have urged the authorities to implement traffic management measures rather than widen roads to save Mysore’s green cover.

: Concerned citizens and environmental activists have urged the University of Mysore to reconsider its decision to widen a link road connecting Hunsur Road with Bogadi Road to save a green canopy.

About 25 trees are proposed to be felled on either side of the road at the entrance of the Manasagangotri campus to widen the road from 7.5 metres to 10.5 metres in view of heavy traffic on the stretch. The citizens, including Vasanthkumar Mysoremath and Maj. Gen Sudhir Vombatkere (retd.), have said the trees could be saved if the widening was limited to nine metres instead of 10.5 metres.

These trees are part of a canopy that extends for a stretch of about 300 metres in the Manasagangotri campus of the varsity.

The citizens called for scientific road humps with signage to curb over-speeding by motorists and avoid accidents.

‘Ad-hoc arrangements’

In a memorandum submitted to the Vice-Chancellor K.S. Rangappa, the citizens said most road-widening projects are at best ad-hoc arrangements as vehicle density keeps growing and this will call for widening in future to cope with the increase in traffic and lead to more destruction of trees.

“Hence, traffic management measures are more important for managing vehicles on Mysore roads,” said the memorandum. The activists called for exploring all alternatives for protecting the ecology and drew the Vice-Chancellor’s attention to the diminishing green cover of Mysore in recent years.

VC to conduct inspection

Though Prof. Rangappa was non-committal, he assured the group that he would visit the spot and conduct an inspection and see what could be done to save as many trees as possible.