Preparations for moving the first tree from L.B. Nagar junction to a new location near the Chilkur Balaji temple are in their final stages. It would be one of the 309-odd trees to be translocated to different locations across the twin cities by the Vata Foundation.
This is a second such mammoth task by the voluntary body after it took up the task of shifting more than 100 trees from KPHB Colony within a month or so. Trees at KPHB Colony, and now at L.B. Nagar, were to be chopped off for flyovers under the government’s Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP). The officials concerned had no plans to translocate them to ensure their survival till citizens’ activism forced the authorities to consider shifting them.
Earlier, scores of trees at L.B. Nagar and its environs were uprooted for the metro rail project. Now, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) was set to cut down 326 trees yet again for the proposed new flyover.
These trees, which are about five-years-old planted in lieu of the uprooted trees for the Hyderabad Metro Rail project, would have been cut down sometime ago but for delays in the work. In fact, the GHMC had obtained clearance from the tree protection committee to cut down 309 of the trees.
It was also decided that only 17 trees would be translocated since other trees were either dead or were not fit to be moved elsewhere, as they were “crooked, bent or malformed”.
With concerned citizens and voluntary groups upping the ante against the felling of trees, the municipal corporation decided to play it safe and approached the Vata Foundation for the translocation of the 17 trees offering logistic support like trucks, cranes and manual labour.
However, the foundation’s trustee, P. Uday Krishna, realised that the tree protection committee had erred in their judgement that only 17 trees were fit for relocation and offered to take up the translocation of all the trees. “We checked and found that all the trees could be moved, given sufficient time and space. We have finalised our schedule and are waiting for the GHMC to give permission and keep up its word,” he explained.
Apart from the Chilkur Balaji temple precincts, a substantial number of trees are also to be moved to a gated community at Kondapur and also the Oakrdige School. The Vata Foundation has sought three JCBs, three cranes, six tractor trailers and a dozen labourers for the exercise which would take about a week. The GHMC officials have apparently asked the flyover contractor to provide the necessary infrastructure or pay the cost for translocation to the foundation to cover the expenses.
“We do not know whether this will materialise, but we are going ahead with the work having raised up to ₹2 lakh from friends, well-wishers and family,” said Mr. Uday Krishna, getting his band of volunteer-friends ready for yet another green task beginning Sunday.
He can be contacted on 9848023029.