It is very understandable that people from our city stand up against every sort of development plans which involves cutting of trees. The city has witnessed ruthless cutting of trees in the recent years. Be it highways redevelopment, metro works etc have all taken a toll on trees. We have lost very good tree cover on all roads leading into the city as well as within the city too.
Many of the protests have worked in a postive manner too, for example where BMRCL which initially planned to cut down many trees on the Nanda road boulevard, went on to just prune the trees and transplanting trees has been part of their plans these days too.
However there is a need to re-look at the protests we are involved in and the intent. For example there is a greater purpose of setting up mass public transport solutions like metro, where we need to let go of some green cover wherever it is inevitable.
As well as some true re-development efforts of public spaces which are ill designed and need to be redesigned.
But how do we make sure we get the green cover back is a question which needs to be answered.
Plan trees and around trees in every project
The need for trees in the city is unquestionable . How we get them everywhere could become the charter of "Urban Tree Policy". Every redevelopment plan needs to have plan to have greenery, sometimes protected and also plan for new trees/plants.
Every street can accomodate trees, hence we need planning at ward level to green the street with trees.
For example shielded/insulated power cables for example are being replaced in many parts of the city and this gives a huge opportunity for planting trees at street level, where it was avoided before beacuse of exposed power cables.
Plant right type of trees
Miyawaki menthod for growing trees lays emphasis on selection of local variety of trees. These are best suited for the environment because narture has nurtured these local varieties for thousands of years and they have adapted well for the environment. The soil type..the hyrdration and other necssary factors for growing trees are best suited for the local varieties. Hence it doesnt need much thinking on deciding what to plant first, trees like Honge/Ashoka (Asoca Saraca)/Kadamba are part of this type.
The selection needs be based on the space available too..so footpaths are not too wide we will need trees which are smaller and do not grow very tall or have a very huge trunk, which will make the footpath un-usable at some places. Big Leaf Maples, Silk cotton trees etc are some examples of this type.
It is found that survival rate of older saplings (>1 year old) are much better than very young plants. Hence as a policy we only use such trees.
Bangalore was not as green a few decades ago..greats like Krumbigal and Marigowda transformed this city.
Its high time we carry on with their legacy in the right way and bring back the greenery everywhere..
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