Chipko..Appiko and now Bachhiko!?

Or some similar policy push to encourage planting of trees? Some possibilities

• 10 trees on your front side road setback, you get 0.5 bonus FAR
• Commercial/office buildings with x trees / sqft builtup area get energy rebate
• Road/Rail/Office/Apartment builders get a 5% bonus/money back, or 1 year property tax rebate if they put two trees for every tree they end up uprooting for their development work
• Any entity other than BMTC buying buses or vans must by hybrid vehicles or the ones that run on less polluting fuel (gas, bio-deisel)

Pushing for policy changes like above should give us the pounds. Fighting for 6-7 stretches of roads and rails is like fighting for pennies.

Instead of fighting a project at such late stage, wish we worked to make the environmental clearance process a lot more transparent, because if we had gotten our voices there (early in the project planning process), we would not be seen in negative light by pro-development-at-any-cost lobby (which outnumbers us tree lovers, I believe that) as the Metro opponents are seen today.

I love Nanda Theater Road (RV Road, or 4th main, this road has so many names), and will certainly love to save those trees. But

• Fighting every other project with trees as the cause has to have some method that can help people draw the line and criteria to justify and pick the projects to oppose
• As I said above, the energy spent by activists to fight at late stage on selective projects via PIL etc is perhaps going to be spent better and more effectively by fighting for transparent environmental clearance process and pushing for green policy changes with city civic bodies.

Hope I made some sense.

However, I do not belive than there is NO space in bangalore for more trees

I remember during my trip to southampton, UK last Feb, they had earmarked a whole block of industries near downtown to be destroyed and converted to parks. While they are creating space we are destroying our CA sites to build apartments.

We are picking on adhoc targets. The metro etc are planned developments which will help us keep the environment free of cars. Why dont we look at design of our existing layouts and make space for trees? Our layouts are famous for cramming people. Have we made provisions in our recently widened streets for Trees and pedestrians? I left in october when work on Bellary road was still on. I bet if I look today there would be no trees planted there and no ped sidewalk along the way. I hope I am wrong.

Here is what I have heard,

a. The trees will only be PRUNED - the NM will come up on the median.

b. the part near 40th cross will go for the station.

Luckily or unluckily the sewage and water pipes run under the gardens.  This happened some 20-25 years back when the rose gardens were uprooted and the pipes were put in there. 

For me the ideal route on this is to go on Elephant Rock Road and down 9th main (have a station next to the TTMC in 4th block) and then turn right onto 45th cross.  It could even terminate at the TTMC - buses could ferry people to Jayanagar and JP Nagar.

Srivathsa

the borewells in bangalore go as deep as 300 ft..and where is the space in the CBD for the soil to take in the water anyways!

More so Nanda road already has the cauvery water line which is about 10 ft in dia already emeded below 15 - 20 ft in the side lanes there!

As SY asked, Why can't they wait till they get there to chop the trees? Instead, they should be planting those additional (did I hear 2 for 1) samplings they promised to replace the chopped trees with. If they seed them now, they will be big enough to plant when these guys are close to the spot.

I completely fail to understand this method. Chop trees, dig open holes, break roads and medians when they are 'planned' to commense work two years ahead. Ideally, they should be barricading a block of about a km at most, at any given work spot. If they want to speed up work, work on multiple such blocks at different spots on the lines. Complete all works, remove barricades, and clean up the road below before moving on to the next stretch, so they cause minimal inconvenience. No, we enjoy creating trouble here. And enjoy stretching any existing pain as long as possible.

How do we go forward? Write individual emails or a collective letter?

Ravi

The feasibility study report by RITES had recommended the E-W route to be underground till Brigade rd junction from where it was to ramp up & become elevated at Mayo hall till Byappanahalli. This would have saved the MG rd boulevard & retained the visual charm along this stretch.

However, the DPR plans from DMRC indicate that the elevated section was to ramp up between Cubbon rd & MG rd & be fully elevated all along MG rd.

The additional underground distance would have been only about a kilometer & in cost terms, it would not have greatly changed the financials for Metro construction.

One wonders if the authorities & BMRC had blindly accepted what DMRC had proposed without thinking about long-term impacts that are of a social & sentimental nature. The only way to fight this is through actions such as what Hasiru-Usiru is doing, but it is already too late now. They should have campaigned earlier & would have probably succeeded if what they are doing now had been carried out about three years ago.

As regards Nanda rd, the elevated section has been known a long time since planning was begun for the erstwhile ELRTS. The Metro route has replaced ELRTS now & as I mentioned in an earlier post, the route could have been led via Kanakapura rd after the Jayanagar station, thus saving much of the trees & the serenity on this beautiful road. It would also have added more catchment areas along Kanakapura road as Banashankari 2nd stage would have been in close proximity too.

Again, all this does seem a little too late now to change things as contracts have already been awarded by BMRC & even if a party contests the route in court, they may be questioned & reprimanded as trouble maker/s since the party never brought this up to the court's notice earlier.

a. Why we wake up late.  This alignment was known to HU and all others for about 2 years now.   I am as guilty of inaction but with HU's environmental muscle power they could have woken up earlier and forced some changes before BMRCL could claim it was too late.

b.  Whether we should consider that lovely stretch as land reserved for precisely some such thing and we were lucky to have it green for the past 40 years.  And now the time has come for it to be used.  (BTW my mother-in-law tells me that Richmond Road used to be a tree covered canopy).

c. Work with BMRC to ensure that the fewest possible trees are cut on that stretch and as late as possible and put an RTI to find out where they have planted saplings as replacement.

d. Work with the govt to convert Race Course into a mini forest.  It will take 20 years to bloom, but it is never too late to start. 

e. Convert some of the old lake beds into forested areas as well (Sarakki Lake, Varthur Lake e.g.).  Better to have it wooded than to see it covered with water hyacinth or with concrete structures.

Srivathsa