800 trees to be felled! Activist Disha Ravi slams BMRCL

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Bengaluru activist Disha Ravi took to Twitter on Saturday, opposing the felling of 800 trees for the BMRCL’s Metro Airport Line. “The metro airport line phase 2A is coming up and nearly 800 trees are going to be chopped between Central Silk Board & Kadubeesanahalli. On a field visit, it was confirmed that 15 trees inside the lake will also be cut, they didn’t put this out to the public in their docs,” she tweeted.

Ravi wrote that BMRCL received 774 objections from the public but decided to pay no heed to this. Over 4,777 trees will be cut, Ravi claimed, a number the Metro Rail Corp allegedly tried to obfuscate by publishing it in nine notices. “Although BMRCL and the forest department have promised compensatory afforestation (baby saplings are different from full grown trees so compensatory afforestation is just another greenwashing tactic), they haven’t revealed any information on this,” she wrote.

She went on to state her demands, saying that a public notice should be posted that clearly discloses the number of trees to be axed. “They should also hold a walkthrough on alignment, station location and design, along with information on environmental and social impacts, for citizens.”

The BMRCL had fixed the deadline for the much-awaited Airport Express to December 2024. The ambitious project will involve the construction of a 38.44 km line from K.R. Puram to the Bengaluru International Airport. The creation of a new metro line will ensure traffic diversion and less vehicle congestion and dust.

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board conducted an analysis in 2017 and found air quality had jumped between nine and 13 percent along metro corridors, less than six months after Phase 1 became operational in its entirety. A study done in 2018 showed a clear dip in pollution levels, especially along hte Baiyappanahalli line. at the time, monitoring stations had shown a dip in air pollutants like Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM 10 and PM 2.5). Particulate matter that is less than 2.5 microns is the most dangerous air pollutant and is a significant cause of respiratory problems.

The stretch against which Disha Ravi is currently protesting, will run from Central Silk Board junction to K.R. Puram, also one of Bengaluru’s most traffic dense areas. However, Yeshwanth Chavan, BMRCL spokesperson, told News Trail recently that the “company has always prioritized translocation or transplantation over felling.” It is something the BMRCL has done before, in areas like Bannerghatta and Whitefield, in 2018. Strong mitigation measures like transplantation and compensatory plantation will be adhered to, he said, adding, “Precautions will be taken to protect the structures along the line. Similar work had been carried out for the Cubbon Park station and many others.”