Online petition to stop Heli Tourism near Lalitha Mahal Palace

Published on : Monday, April 5, 2021

Near Lalitha Mahal Palace which is a butterfly zone, an online campaign has recently been introduced against axing hundreds of trees for the proposed Heli Tourism.

Across the globe, over 35,279 people have garnered their support of a petition posted on www.change.org website. However, it’s not known how many of them are Mysureans.

The Heli Tourism project is the brainchild of C.P. Yogeeshwar, the Tourism Minister who has by now arranged few meetings and has also inspected the proposed spot for twice.

M.K. Saptha Girish, a green activist, who actually initiated this petition against cutting of trees, says that Mysuru is in urgent need of environmentally sustainable tourism and not a tourism that’s environmentally destructive. While sharing his views to Star of Mysore this morning, Saptha Girish explained that the trees have been numbered unscientifically. “Looking at the way trees have been numbered, it looks like they are cutting over 1,000 trees in an eco-sensitive zone. First of all who gave permission to number the trees? Scrapping the tree bark to put the numbers is a way to kill a tree. Have the authorities followed the procedure while numbering,” he questioned.

“We are not against development — but development at what cost and at whose cost? Are there no alternatives? Why 1,000 trees have to be cut for a tourism project meant for the rich and the elite? We have enough space in Mysuru for the Heli Tourism project. We will not allow the trees to be cut,” he reiterated.

This morning, all the environmentalists of Mysuru were all geared up to hold a novel protest through bird and butterfly watching near the proposed helipad area. However it was called off after the refutation of permission by the Police in the wake of the pandemic and the guidelines of the Government of stopping all sorts of protests, dharnas and rallies up till April 20th. The environmentalists of Mysuru took the online route rather to vent out their annoyance against the decision of the State Government to construct the helipad near Lalitha Mahal Palace.

The environmentalists challenged that if the helipad and docking stations were built near Lalitha Mahal Palace, traffic density will increase. Many more trees will be axed in the name of VVIP security. Also, they have requested all citizens to raise their voice against this project which is detrimental to sustainable development of city.