Swarathma hits protest note, to oppose Indiranagar tree felling via concert

Padmaja Nagarur was among the earliest to arrive at the BDA Complex on Sunday morning. Having travelled all the way from Bannerghatta Road, she was in Indiranagar to support the initiative opposing axing of trees for the proposed redevelopment of the BDA complex.

“I couldn’t stop tree-felling for the metro near my home. Officials did not have proper answers for how they intend to maintain or balance green cover. So, I want to support any citizen effort that prevents indiscriminate cutting down of trees,” said Nagarur, cofounder of the ecommerce platform Artflute.



A group of around 50 people had gathered at the complex on Sunday. While some were residents of Indiranagar and part of the local residents’ welfare associations, others were fans of the band Swarathma. The latter had volunteered to perform a musical tour of the six-acre campus to raise awareness about the 171-odd trees that stand to be axed under a redevelopment plan.

The tour started under the twin peepal tree at the entrance, with bass guitarist Jishnu Dasgupta hoping that “people will also come together for a common cause just like the trees embrace each other.” Songs were rendered under various trees on the campus, including the rain tree, the banyan tree and the Pride of India tree.

“We must understand that development should never come at the cost of losing valuable green cover,” Dasgupta said later during the tour. Band members present at the venue included Sanjeev Nayak, Vasu Dixit and Varun Murali. Some of the songs performed were Pyaasi, Ee Bhoomi and Duur Kinara.


Brief sessions before every performance gave information and trivia about trees on campus. Like how the rain tree is called ‘thoongu moonji maram’ (sleepy tree) because of the way its leaves fold up and how the tree sprays the ground beneath with flowers and seeds. Or how the peepal tree became an integral part of Bengaluru’s cultural fabric. The other trees in the premises include African tulip, Indian jujube, mango, guava, silver oak and Ficus.

I Change Indiranagar, the federation of local RWAs that organised the event, also led a tree count in the BDA Complex on Friday. Factors documented included age, girth, canopy and impact on biodiversity.

“We documented over 145 big trees on the premises and are yet to document the smaller ones. The oldest trees are close to 70 years old,” said Swarna Venkataraman, secretary, Indiranagar 1st Stage League RWA. “The fact that trees are the first casualty for every development project shows that authorities work with a myopic, short-term view. The proposed redevelopment will benefit private coffers more than the public. So anything short of saving all the trees in the premises will be insufficient.”