Scores of banyan trees on Chevella-Manneguda route, which had been saved from felling by the ‘Save Banyans of Chevella’ campaign a year ago, were found to have been ruthlessly hacked or burnt during the lockdown period.

Environmental activists, who had been instrumental back then in protecting the trees from being axed, were shocked to find about 20 to 30 of them either burnt at the stem base or hacked altogether when they took a tour to the location post lockdown.

“I shot a video of all the trees when they were numbered for axing last year. Later, I took several trips to the area till the lockdown began and they were all there. Now I find that several of them have been damaged at the stem level, hacked or burnt. I can say with utmost certainty that this happened during the lockdown period,” says P. Uday Krishna from Vata Foundation who had initiated the ‘Save Banyans of Chevella’ campaign through a petition on Change.Org with 35,000 signatures.

Pictures of the tree remnants speak louder than words. Stems of a few of the trees were either partially burnt or partly hacked, a few others were hollowed out, and a few more hacked altogether.

Forest officials in charge of the trees claimed that the banyans were damaged back in June 2019 by miscreants, about which a complaint was reportedly filed in the police station of Chevella too. However, the report by the then Forest Range Officer attributed it to ground fire. As per officials, a total of 24 trees were damaged during that time.

Mr. Uday Krishna, however, disputes the claim. Foliage on several trees is found to be still fresh and alive, and ash from burning could still be found near the base, which disproves the claim, he says.

In 2019, he and his team had counted 900 Banyan trees between Chevella and Manneguda which were marked for felling to make way for widening of the National Highway between Hyderabad and Bijapur. Thousands of trees up to Chevella had already been axed by then.

After working up a storm by way of petitions to various agencies and vigorous campaigns, he and other environmentalists could finally halt the axing. There has not been any progress on the road widening front since then.

“In fact, I represented to the Chief Minister’s office, top officials, NHAI and Roads & Buildings department then to allow me to translocate the trees to the fresh road margins. There was no response. Later, I approached villages in the neighbourhood and several private property owners who were more than willing to adopt the trees if translocated,” a distraught Mr.Uday Krishna shared.