Bengaluru: BDA hasn't planted single sapling for two years

Bengaluru, Feb 13: The Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) has not planted a single sapling in two years, according to information accessed by activists under Right To Information (RTI).

A recent RTI reply showed that in the last two years there have been no addition to the number of trees in Bengaluru due to government action. OneIndia has accessed the RTI reply by the BDA which shows that it has not planted a single sapling for 2017-18 and in 2018-19.

Vijay Nishanth, environmental activist, said, "This shows why people don't believe the government when they say there will be compensatory forestation for big infrastructural projects like the steel bridge and elevated corridor. While there is enough money to spend thousands of crores on steel bridge, why can't Rs 5 crore be spent on planting trees. This city was made of trees, people used to come here for the good weather but now look how the weather has changed over the last few years alone."

He added, "We can see how little importance the political class gives for the trees. For an entire city of Bengaluru, we only have 12 officers in the BBMP tree cell. We hear that tree cells of both the BDA and BBMP do not get the finacial sanction to carry out their plantation programs. If the trees disappear like this, not only will there be no good weather but no rain also."