Murder on Kotturpuram road
Er…apologies for the sensationalist headline. But the news is that Kotturpuram has lost most of its trees. Big ones, bigger ones, small ones. The trees that canopied the road all the way from AM Murugappa school to the IIT signal hav e been felled in order to make way for the new, big road that’s going to come up there.
It’s not just Kotturpuram, though. TTK Road, GN Chetty Road, Usman Road and many other roads that actually had fairly good tree cover have been marked. Naturally, therefore, a few people have come together to protest this. Geeta Padmanabhan points me to a writ-petition filed by Mr. Vijaya Bhaskaran to the Government of TamilNadu and other bodies responsible. Will keep you folks posted on the news. Meanwhile, if you would like to know more details about the petition or want to help, get in touch with Geeta Padmanabhan or call up the Exnora.
The trees at Kotturpuram got transplanted into CLRI and Labour Institute. Besides there will be more trees felled as we build the city’s ring roads, flyovers and expressways…
There just needs to an authority that can certify that these trees are being transplanted properly
Pleas don’t fel as a semsational heading. To me, felling of trees is equlavaent and more than murder.
The title is certainly sensationalist, but with good reason. I really hope that the authorities have taken the steps to transplant the trees to other locations. However, I don’t see what action can be taken against them (authorities, not trees) – doesn’t everyone want an upgraded Chennai in terms of roads and the quality of infrastructure in general? This is a price that we may have to pay, sadly.
But do they really get transplanted as said by the corporation and do they really survive after it, that is a million dollar question one need to ask or the corporation officials who does this. Maybe why not the metblog team visit those place and confirm this and write a blog about it??
They should start planting saplings on the median rather than on the sides. At least you wont have to worry about shifting them if the road needs to be widened.
The roads mentioned are major traffic bottlenecks. The presence of these trees is quite dangerous to motorists on these roads. I was in fact quite relieved that the trees are going along Kotturpuram road.
I just don’t believe in this transplanting of 50- to 100- year-old trees. That is to say I strongly suspect that it is not possible.
I’d like to know, if it has been tried, how many of them will still be alive in a year.
Either there’ll be a field full of dead trees then, or someone’s selling wood. Or both.
Very sad. What happened to the Make Chennai Green slogan?