Nearly a year after the BMRCL was hauled up to the court over the controversial felling of trees in middle of the night, the tree expert committee has okayed chopping down 207 trees for the Gottigere-Nagavara line under Phase 2.
The BMRCL had applied for clearance again after the high court stalled the felling of trees due to a “defective” public notification. Following the publication of the revised notification which had details of the trees being felled, the committee held discussions with the BMRCL and considered the 61 objections that it received to the felling of trees.
The committee concluded that of the total 212 trees, 149 trees have to be felled while 58 can be translocated. Only five trees could be retained with pruning.
An activist who was instrumental in raising the tree-felling on the night of June 9, 2020, called for holding officials accountable for the incident.
“Every official knew that felling more than 50 trees required seeking objections from the people.
The BBMP gave clearance and the BMRCL cut the trees in the middle of the night. It would have got away with it had it not been for the intervention of the public. Officials must be held accountable,” he said.