Mangalore: Tough Choice for City Dwellers—Saving Trees Vs Concrete Road
By Rajesh S
Pics: Prajwal Ukkuda
Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore (CN)
Mangalore, Mar 3: The city is growing swiftly. However, a casualty of this progress are the beautiful, old, trees that are being felled each day to make way for spanking new concrete roads.
Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) plans to have 26 concrete roads in the city, citing durability of such roads as the reason they are required in the coastal region.
Once there are 26 concrete roads in the city, there will be an end to the issue of potholes dotting the path. However, there are some groups of citizens who frown upon the threat posed to the environment by the rapid speed of modernization.
At least 18 magnificent trees, which provided abundant shade during the hot, sunny days, dating back nearly 75 years have been sawed down to make way for five major concrete roads—Mannagudda, Lady Hill, Hampankatta, Lalbagh, and Kuntikan.
“Development is essential, but killing oxygen producers is bad. It is equal to killing ourselves”, said Jerald Towers, a resident of Kadri who is also a social worker.
He says that the administrators always consider themselves supreme as the public cause is not important to them. Towers laments the fact that there are not enough people to agitate against such issues which are anti-society.
Kateel Dinesh Pai who had filed an objection in the city against the cutting down of trees says that 18 trees have been felled down since 2000. “I had filed an objection, but it has not had any effect since the contractors involved in the construction, with the support of the MCC, have cut the trees indiscriminately”, he says.
Pai has also held numerous protests and toiled hard to save the trees. But all his efforts have been in vain due to political power of the ruling parties in the MCC.
Former mayor Ganesh Hosabettu had said when laying the foundation stone for the concrete roads that there were plans to preserve as many trees as possible. But he has failed to keep his word and the felling of trees continues.
The MCC has prepared tenders for 26 roads in the city, which will lead to the cutting down of about 25 trees. Environmentalists are concerned that soon we will live in a city of no trees!
Hanumanth Kamath, president, Nagarika Hitharakshana Vedike, claims that trees are essential for the city as they provide fresh oxygen which is in short supply here owing to the pollution from vehicles and industries.
“Parks and trees are called ‘breathing spaces’, and are also mentioned in the city planning project drawn up recently. Parks in the city are uncared for and with the felling of trees, there will be no breathing space left. This is equal to killing human beings”, says Kamath, adding that the MCC is not following the rule of planting two trees for every tree that is cut down.
The forest department has also been turning a blind eye to the cutting of trees owing to the influence of the MCC. The forest department has to issue permission letters for the cutting of certain trees though some are also cut down without any prior permission.
Now Mangaloreans are faced with the hard choice of opting for development through concrete roads or saving the environment by putting an end to felling of trees.