Ex-DCF agreed to chopping 2,000 trees for sports complex

With one stroke of pen, former special deputy commissioner H Ramanjaneya endangere

d 2,000-plus fully grown trees in the city during his tenure.
Through an order dated February 13, 2009, he allotted 27 acres and eight guntas of government land—near Gunjurpalya in city—to the department of youth services and sports to construct a sports complex. The allotment is not only in violation of Karnataka Forest Act but will also translate into felling of more than 2,000 mature trees that are being maintained by forest department for 30 years.

Ganesh V, range forest officer, KR Puram division, said Ramanjaneya’s order, if executed, would wipe out a vast green area. He said trees of many kind, such as honne, nalli, matti, sandalwood, acacia, eucalyptus, jamun, bamboo, survey, bete, kamara, ippe, shivane, hunse, neem, basavanapada, jalee, bilwara, honge and cardamom, are on the piece of land that has been allotted.

Ganesh said the authorities should consider allotting land for the proposed sports complex elsewhere. He said he hoped that the authorities would cancel the allotment to save hundreds of trees in the area.

Ganesh alleged that Ramanjaneya has sanctioned land for two temples and a mutt too.

Additional secretary, forest, ecology and environment, Koushik Mukherjee, had recently visited the place and praised forest department officials for maintaining the trees. He said he would do everything in his might to protect the trees and would try to get the area notified as a reserved forest.
‘Give us land’

Assistant director of the department of youth services and sports, Veerappa CU, wrote a letter to the deputy conservator of forests (DCF), Bangalore, on December 1, 2011, asking him to axe the trees on the said piece of land so that the work on the sports complex could be started.

Veerappa said he was not aware of any rules that prohibit allotment of wooded areas. He said the site was allotted to their department and thus he wrote to the DCF, asking him to axe the trees.

AG Appu Rao, DCF, said he had written a letter to the deputy commissioner MK Aiyappa, requesting him to cancel the order. Aiyappa told DNA that he would take a decision if the forest department sends a request.

YR Kantharaju, joint director of department of youth services and sports, said funds were yet to be allocated for the sports complex. He said a meeting in this regard would be held soon after the assembly session gets over.

“We will not find such a vast land anywhere in Bangalore to construct the sports complex. I am hopeful of finding an amicable solution for this issue,’’ he said.