Hyderabad: GHMC cocks a snook at WALTA Act, fells trees at Tadbund

Hyderabad: Cocking a snook at WALTA Act, a rule that promulgates conservation of trees in the State, the GHMC itself is allegedly using its axe on fully grown trees or turning a blind eye to such audacities while embarking on road widening drives at several locations in the city, explicitly on the Puranapul- Aram Ghar stretch where work of two bridges is in progress simultaneously.

Already traffic on the stretch is choked due to ongoing bridge works, not to mention the pathetic condition of roads. Over a dozen age-old trees on the sideways of the road at Tadban, near Zoo Park, were mercilessly hacked without taking into consideration the Act, which prohibits such action and propagates translocation of fully grown trees.

The Act does not even permit landowners to cut trees without alternate measures to compensate the loss to nature. Its regulations are being thrown to wind while taking up road-widening in the city. The rule says, "If any owner desires to fell a tree, he shall apply in writing to the designated officer for permission by paying a fee."

However, when it comes to roadside trees, the local body or authority is considered a de facto owner of the natural vegetation whose primary responsibility is to ensure conservation of such natural treasure houses that provide unparallel benefits to humans living in ambient environment.

The GHMC action has come when the issue of Chevella banyan trees is boiling, again as environmental activists have raised their voices against the move to cut down over 1,000 banyans on either side of highways. The GHMC leaves no time to argue the issue and simply uses its axe on almost 16 fully grown trees on a single spot on Saturday in the Tadbund area.

The trees were hacked and the logs were carted away, purportedly sold to private parties. No official of the Forest department was seen on the spot the whole day to prevent trees from being cut one after the other. Traffic from the Zoo Park to Mir Alam Water Filling Station was disturbed for a few hours. Police mobile vehicles of Bahadurpura were also seen patrolling the stretch, but to no avail as trees on the busy stretch kept falling unabashedly.

The trees, once part of an avenue plantation and formed an ambient environment in the area, are now trampled down completely. This turned this part of quarter into a bald ambiance otherwise providing a blissful shade for commuters despite the misery that half of them were already ruined.

Bemoaned Khaleel Ahmed, a right activist, "Translocation of trees while undertaking road-widening measures in the city has become a thing of past. Most old trees are being axed mercilessly and for the heck of it, sometimes under officials' supervision while the rules of the Act are thrown to the wind."