Karnataka Budget 2017: Siddaramaiah's takes green cover to win war of perception

BENGALURU: Chief minister Siddaramaiah's budget has laid out several programmes to increase tree cover, which comes after the government received much flak from civil society over the proposed felling of over 800 trees for the now-defunct steel flyover project in Bengaluru.

Siddaramaiah announced that tree parks -named after environmentalist Saalumarada Thimmakka -will be established in every assembly constituency in the state. “In the first phase, 50 tree parks will be developed on forest land,“ he said.

As many as six lakh sandalwood saplings will be raised and 700 hectares of sandalwood plantations will be developed as an alternative to eucalyptus in Bengaluru's neighbouring districts of Kolar and Chikkaballapura. Further, six crore tall and good quality saplings will be raised for Vanamahotsava, the annual tree plantation festival.

The government has committed to spend Rs 5 crore to set up a foundation named after novelist and environmentalist Poornachandra Tejaswi and another Rs 5 crore on a Forest Information Centre near Bengaluru in the Chikkamannugudda Research Centre on the BengaluruMysuru road.

Siddaramaiah also announced a Nursery Development Agency for the development of all nurseries on a scientific basis.

The 6.7-km steel flyover from Basaveshwara Circle to the Hebbal junction -pegged to cost Rs 1,800 crore -was projected to help improve connectivity to the Kempegowda International Airport.

“Never before had Bengaluru seen such large numbers of citizens come out in support of trees. That may have influenced the thrust on increasing tree cover,“ said architect Naresh V Narasimhan, one of the leaders in the #SteelFlyoverBeda campaign. “Also, governments are now understanding the need for more trees with climate change.“

The cancellation of the steel flyover project prompted Siddaramaiah to announce an alternative in the budget: construction of an underbridge and widening of the overbridge at the Hebbal junction at a cost of Rs 88 crore. The steel flyover, had it taken off, would have bypassed the trafficheavy Hebbal junction.

“This was something we suggested; the Hebbal junction itself needed to be fixed. The city needs more of imanineering and less of engineering,“ Narasimhan said. “I'm happy that the government has acknowledged citizen opinions and I hope the same spirit continues.“