Decades-old trees numbering over 1,000, to be chopped for the expansion of the Hyderabad-Bijapur National Highway, will be spared the axe.
A charitable organisation, Phoenix Foundation, has come forward to help translocate the trees, including over 900 banyan trees believed to be between 80 and 90 years old.
Joint meet
The Foundation got in touch with the Vata Foundation, a voluntary body which has been propagating the cause of translocation of these trees and has offered to organise a joint meeting with representatives of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Telangana Forest Department to work out the logistics involved in moving the giant trees.
“We have been knocking on every door for saving these trees. We are pleased that the Phoenix Foundation wants to actively take part in the translocation. We will be discussing modalities in the next few days,” said Vata Foudation Trustee Udaykrishna P.
Most of these trees are located between Moinabad and Manneguda for over 50 km and while all the furore over cutting away the giant trees has ensured the work is halted for now, the voluntary bodies wish to hasten movement of trees before the monsoon breaks out, which in any case is the best time to get the trees to regain strength for full bloom.
Carbon sink
The plan, as of now, is to dig out the trees, trim them and transport a majority of them to a reserve forest area in Moinabad where the Forest department and the Phoenix Foundation are proposing a 500-acre biosphere with variety of plants to serve as a carbon sink for the capital region.
“Banyan is a sturdy tree and even the branches when chopped for trimming could be used for growing fresh trees. We will be making use of all the branches and these can be transplanted in various urban parks proposed to be raised in the suburbs. It could cost up to ₹70,000 to translocate a tree and all it requires is two-three years of watering,” claims Mr. Udaykrishna.
About 100 trees are also to be given to individuals and groups which had shown interest in adopting them. The latest development just before the rains has come as a shot in the arm for the Vata Foundation as its earlier efforts to translocate the trees to forest land did not work out as also a preliminary enquiry by the Andhra Pradesh government to move them to Amaravati.