Save-tree fight gets folk music touch

BENGALURU: Indiranagar residents' fight to save trees marked for chopping to make way for redevelopment of the BDA complex is set to get a musical twist. Popular folk band Swarathma is all set to perform on Sunday morning in front of the structure to create awareness about age-old trees and their importance.
The peformance follows a tree census conducted by Vruksha Foundation and iChangeIndiranagar on Friday, involving citizen volunteers and children. There were seven-year-olds as well as 70-year-old senior citizens involved the exercise, said tree doctor Vijay Nishanth.

"Many trees are being chopped down for infrastructural development like building a road or a Metro flyover which is definitely important," said Vasu Dixit, lead vocalist of Swarathma told TOI.

The performance, beginning at 8am, is to understand the value of trees, he said. "This shows the city wasn't planned well before, with numerous people trying to settle down in localities and infrastructure developing everywhere. It only shows poor town planning," he said.

Citizen volunteers said they counted around 90 trees on Friday and most were silver oak, ficus and banyan trees among others. Many of them, including children, felt bad that such a tree legacy is marked only to get chopped for redeveloping a complex.

"Every time the government comes up with a new plan and decides to chop down trees, they don't understand the effect it will have on the environment," said Nishanth.

According to United Bengaluru, a citizen forum that coordinated the exercise, citizens and experts will come together again to continue the census. Each of the trees in the BDA complex area is invaluable and 60-70 years old. When these trees are cut, even birds and insects get affected, which people aren't aware of, he said, adding, "Young children measure the width of the trees to understand how to determine their age."

"Trees are the first victim for any project. We realised we need to build awareness about trees in the BDA complex and how a natural heritage would be lost if they are felled," said Swarna Venkataram, secretary of Indiranagar 1st Stage resident welfare association. Children are future green warriors and it is a good initiative to make them aware of their neighbourhood, she added.