Mangaluru, Oct 29: The felling of trees as part of road construction work between Kannagudde and Saripalla by the Mangaluru City Corporation has evoked protest from the green activists.
The MCC had sought permission from the Southern Railway as a portion of the land on which the road passes through belongs to the Railways. It was a long pending demand of the Kannagudde and Saripalla residents. On Saturday a giant rain tree was razed to the ground to facilitate the road work.
Mayor Bhaskar K. said that the MCC paid Rs. 1.35 crore to the Railways that accorded permission for laying the road. The MCC has earmarked Rs. 85 lakh for laying the road. “It is a long pending demand of the residents. The road will come up in the next few weeks,” he said.
The MCC then sought permission from the Range Forest Officer, Mangaluru, for felling 26 trees coming in the way of the project. The RFO granted permission on August 9 for cutting down the old rain tree and 25 others that included badam, mango, jackfruit and Sagwani trees.
While 25 trees were cut a few days ago, the old rain tree with 3.8 metres girth was cut down on Saturday evening. National Environment Care Federation Ullal unit president Naveen Nayak accused the MCC of unnecessarily removing the old rain tree that was by the side of the proposed road. “Despite the tree not coming in the way of the new road, it has been removed. This tree is nearly a century old,” he said and rued the apathy of the officials to preserving greenery.
Refuting the allegations, Mr. Bhaskar said that the old tree was removed as it was on the road shoulder-drain alignment and other utilities. “We care about trees. We do not unnecessarily cut them down,” he said and added that afforestation for the loss of 26 trees has been taken up on a land nearby.
The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
Comments
Nature will retaliate some day.
Add new comment