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Trees felled to widen Namadachelume Road

Road widening inside Devarayana Durga state forest is taking place without any concern for the trees and the natural environment.

On June 21, three WANCers- Ameen Ahmed, Mallikarjun and Guru Prasad observed and noted the following:
1). The road from 5th mile stone (8th km stone) to Durgadahalli cross beyond Namadachelume, which is currently about 10 - 12 feet wide, is being widened to about 35 - 40 feet i.e. till the cattle prevention trenches on either side of the road that were dug during M.N.Narayanaswamy DCF's period.
2) A JCB has been used to widen this entire 6 km stretch.
3) Almost all the scrub forest trees and small trees have been uprooted/felled along this stretch for this purpose. On this page are a couple of these pictures.
4) All the big and mature trees that could not be removed by the JCB have been marked by machets ( "macchu" as we call in Kannada) / sharp instruments. These big trees are intended to be removed for the road widening process. We have photographed some of these trees and on this page are a couple of these pictures.
5) Infact a few medium sized trees have already been felled. We have photographed these and on this page are a couple of these pictures.

Apart from the above, we noted the following:
6. There has been fresh tree felling inside the Girlekatte Valleybelow the view point between Namadachelume and Devarayana Durga hill.
7. The road from Swandenahalli to Chinnagara Betta is now visible from the DD hills on the way to Yoga Narasimha temple. This road earlier was not even visible during the summer season let alone the monsoons.

All this makes us wonder if we have any reason to celebrate Devarayana Durga's 100th birthday. We need to do something really urgent and drastic to save "Namma Devarayana Durga", else we will not have any forest left near Tumkur City within the next 5 to 10 years.



One of the many trees cut down for the road expansion




The proposed width of the road being expanded can be seen in this picture

A tree marked for felling besides the road


An uprooted tree besides earth that has been excavated besides the road


An uprooted tree besides earth that has been excavated besides the road



An uprooted tree besides earth that has been excavated besides the road


"Jelly kallu" or gravel stones in the forest near Namadachelume's ecological park besides the road to expand it.



Another view of gravel stones in the forest besides the road to expand it.


What remains of a once beautiful Gulmohar tree

Another view of the same Gulmohar tree


A huge Silk Cotton tree that will be felled to widen the road


Another view of the Silk Cotton tree that will be felled to widen the road

Comments

  1. now the situation is good..they have maintained well..it should be made as wildlife sanctuary...

    ReplyDelete

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