As the juggernaut of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) ploughs ahead with highway expansion projects around the country, tucked away amid these proposals is a four-laning plan for a minor road outside Hyderabad. Around ₹1,000 crore has been approved for widening the NH-163 stretch connecting Hyderabad to Manneguda: and the 45 km that will now be four-laned spells doom for a thousand banyan trees that canopy the road for a long stretch.
It doesn’t help that these trees occupy an odd space in our environmental and legal landscape: they are not a park, they are not a forest, and they are not public commons. The sacrifice of these banyans, the national tree of India, along with thousands of other trees, clearly doesn’t mean much to the authorities. Neither do the many species of birds, animals and insects sustained by this keystone species.
Grand trunks
The NH-163 project is yet another example of the failure of our institutional imagination to include the natural landscape into our expansion plans. Old trees, ancient Deccan boulders, streams, are all obstacles to be obliterated for gleaming highways. This, despite guidelines to incorporate them into the plan. NH-163
Vegetable sellers under the banyans outside Chevella town.
was once a State highway. Even today, the lion’s share of the highway is in Telangana, beginning just outside Warangal, merging into the Hyderabad thoroughfare and emerging out towards Moinabad, Manneguda, Parigi and Kodangal before making its way to Bijapur in Karnataka. The Nizam’s government had lined this old highway with
banyans and other trees. The road currently has a canopy of nearly 10,000 trees, some grand, others not in great shape. The highway passes through Chevella, a key suburb outside Hyderabad, undergoing massive real-estate development. Thanks to a quirk of fate, NH-163 alone retains its trees and commuters stop here for a sip of sugarcane juice or to buy the vegetables that are sold under its shade.
Support the cause
In 2019, when the highway expansion plans were first announced, a group of people who called themselves ‘Nature Lovers of Hyderabad’ and an NGO called Vata Foundation got involved. Two Change.org petitions by these groups drew nearly 40,000 signatures each, reflecting how much these stately trees were loved by the public. After a few months of intense activity, NHAI shelved the project; the authority’s finances were not good, and the public backlash didn’t help. But the local lobby interested in developing this stretch has been pushing a case to restart the project. NH-163 happens also to be a key link to Ananthagiri hills, a beautiful tourist spot an hour away from Hyderabad. This, along with the real-estate development in the region, puts massive pressure to ‘develop’ this highway.
In September this year, the NHAI told reporters that the project would be green-lighted again. By the end of September, NHAI floated tenders seeking to four-lane NH-163 till Manneguda, about 45 km from Hyderabad. Soon, Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for road transport and highways, tweeted that NHAI had approved the project.
So now, a minor road project clearly has the support from some of the big names in the Union government. But as some parts of
Fruit sellers under the banyans outside Chevella town.
the highway abut forest land (some of the last stretches of Deccani scrub forests outside Hyderabad), the project needs forest department clearance. There is talk that NHAI wants to translocate all the banyans, perhaps a few meters away, or to properties around Hyderabad that are willing to take them. The Nature Lovers of Hyderabad has again swung into action, but it needs the support of many more environmental networks in Hyderabad and elsewhere.
Push back
NH-163 presents us with an opportunity to try something new. We can find ways to incorporate trees and landscapes into our road projects by using techniques like eccentric widening. This way, we can keep old trees, boulders, and perhaps even water bodies as an integral part of highway design. Highways can support village economies, not by having new malls, but by giving tree-lined spaces for people to set up shop. It will give our children a chance to learn about ecosystems.
On the road to Chevella, you can see some majestic Indian spotted eagles, white-eyed buzzards, red-necked falcons and many other raptors. And, more, these massive banyans sequester carbon and their aerial roots increase local moisture.
It is time to push back. This may well be the last chance to save these irreplaceable giants. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”
The writer is part of a civic action group, Nature Lovers of Hyderabad, working to save the Chevella banyans.
