‘Funds to plant more saplings gives room for increased misuse’

Rachana Ramesh

Bengaluru: In the budget presentation, the government said that 10 lakh saplings have been planted every year up to 2022- 23. From 2023-24 onwards, this will be increased to 15 lakh saplings, it announced along with a promise of establishing three high-tech nurseries in coordination with the Forest department.

Prof TV Ramachandran from Centre of Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, said that there are several gaps in this promise made towards “the dying city”. He noted that CM Basavaraj Bommai has also simultaneously announced several road infrastructure projects that will inevitably result in the cutting of trees.

“Claims made so far with regard to planting of trees cannot be seen on the ground. Either the plants are dead or present only on the ledger. Most of the money is misappropriated and the new announcement has only made room for more misappropriation,” he said.

He explained that when the municipal bodies undertake plantation drives, they must geo-tag the newly planted saplings and make the data available to the public to make sure they can be held accountable. “The CM has loaded too much on Bengaluru. Upgrade of towns, instead of pushing road infrastructures to decongest Bengaluru was better,” he added.