010. Can Schenkottah be seen from the Secretariate?

010. Can Schenkottah be seen from the Secretariate?

News: Officials to move road safety panel. Thiruvananthapuram: The officials undertaking the City Road Improvement Project (CRIP) are planning to approach the Road Safety Authority to get on with the work on stretches where the presence of trees has hindered the progress of work.

Mar 27, 2012, 04.41AM IST

 

Progress of work on roads may, will be and should be hindered where the work purposefully reaches in front of a tree. Roads should go round the tree. That is respect. That is what wise men do. They will plan and design roads with intention to protect as many trees as possible on the way. It was no fault of the tree to have happened to be standing there. It was the folly of the road to have come its way. One single leaf in a good tree on the roadside of Trivandrum is worth far more than the power-hungry, authority-arrogant tiny brain architects of City Road Improvement Project, Road Fund Board and Indian Roads Congress. When cutting permission for trees has to be given, the Kerala Forest Department has to observe and keep stringent measures. Presence of one of their staff in the environmental committee is not at all an excuse for cutting down trees. 10 trees should be planted, protected and nursed to full growth before the proposed tree is permitted to be cut down, that too only in inevitable circumstances. This means that planning for development will have to be done years earlier. That is what the organizations like the City Improvement Trust, Trivandrum Development Authority, Planning Board and the like were constituted for. This chief architect of CRIP, who is the individual in Trivandrum the most responsible for illegally cutting down the most number of healthy trees on Trivandrum road sides, remember this: Plan in advance and move in advance, not in cheating law but in observing law. The people know how many trees standing in whichever places were cut down, without observing Central Government Directives. The CRIP did not plant, protect and nurse to full growth one single tree anywhere before cutting down 3000 trees in Trivandrum. Or where are those 30000 trees he should show which he planted, nursed and protected in its place? Prosecutions will come in its time. Law is equal for all, whether it is a citizen, organization or committee. Forest Department officials forcefully take away the hand axes of poor village women who enter forests for picking dry wood lying on the ground. Even if branches are cut down, forests will grow at fantastic rates. In no time they would be full trees again. There is no harm in cutting tree branches in forests. But here it is healthy fully grown trees that were cut down unnecessarily. Why can’t roads take a curve? We cannot see Schencotta from Secretariate. Roads will curve. It was the District Estate Officer of Kerala Forest Department who was duty bound to have ensured the continued existence of those trees in Pulimmodu, Secratariate, Spenser, Vellayambalam, Sasthamangalam, Kawdiar, Ambalammukku and Peroorkada. If he did not ensure their life, it was his dereliction and deviation from duty. He is the prime derelict in this clandestine operation. In unofficial estimates, not less than 1800 trees were illegally cut down in this stretch of road alone during the years since CRIP’s inception. Hundreds of video films exist in people’s hands, taken during wedding travels and festival processions during the years, picturing the old and the new road sides, by comparing which the spots where trees were cut down could be pinpointed. So, the authorities who came by night and cut those trees don’t think they have outsmarted those weak tree lovers of Trivandrum. It is Treeeeeeevandrum anyway.