Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

Udupi: Hundreds of trees which earlier stood majestically on either sides of National Highway 17 providing it with a green cover are now a thing of the past, thanks to the four-lane work of the Surathkal-Kundapur stretch, which is progressing rapidly.

Many of these trees were over 100 hundred years old. Yet these trees are being felled for the widening of the National Highway 17, which to say the least, is the artery of Udupi district.

The felling reached Kinnimulki here on Monday. Large trees, which used to provide shade from the scorching sun during summer, were all razed within a couple of hours.

Assistant Conservator of Forests, Kundapur, Manjunath Shetty, told The Hindu that nearly 16,500 trees were being felled for the widening of National Highway 17 from Mulky in Dakshina Kannada district to Kundapur in Udupi district. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was giving Rs. 94,000 a km for compensatory plantation to the Department of Forests. “The NHAI has to plant two saplings for every tree felled,” he said.

While the felling of these trees had raised the hackles of the environmentalists, some supported the venture. According to M.A. Madhyastha, member of the Karnataka State Wildlife Board, the felling of these trees was “aesthetically bad and environmentally disastrous”. The felling of trees would increase the surface temperature along the highway. Besides, many of these trees were home for birds and animals. Now they had been rendered homeless. If felling of trees was inevitable, the authorities should try to plant saplings of the same trees rather than exotic and fast-growing trees. “Instead of cutting trees and widening the highway, the Government could have thought of a two-tier highway”, Dr. Madhyastha said.

However, Narasimha Suvarna, an autorickshaw driver in Kinnimulki, said that felling of trees would make the highway wider and help in smooth movement of vehicles. “It is good. We want development. Trees can be planted after the highway work is completed”, he added.