Axing trees is our way of hosting global biodiversity meet

HYDERABAD: G Anantha Ramu could be the chairman and managing director of Central Power Distribution Company Limited (CPDCL) but lessons in green at the ongoing biodiversity convention could come in handy for him, much like they would even for chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy. While the CM affixed his stamp of approval for the felling of 200 trees on the Hitex-HICC stretch last month, CPDCL has gone a step ahead. It chopped off 40 healthy trees in a gated community located on the same stretch last week, without even seeking permission to do so on the pretext of giving uninterrupted power supply to the CoP-11 venue. Anantha Ramu, however, cornered by STOI over axing of trees, tried to argue that “public safety cannot wait for permissions”.

But scores of residents and workers at Aparna Orchids gated community are crying foul over the axing of trees, which were between 10 and 15 years old, last Wednesday when a platoon of around 12 CPDCL officials overwhelmed the landscaping supervisor of the complex, Anil Kumar, and indiscriminately felled trees. According to Anil Kumar, the officials told him that they would only be pruning branches so that they wouldn’t cause interruptions by touching the 33 KV high tension lines running very close to the community boundary wall but chopped of the trunks. No amount of protests could stop the officials. “They came at a time when all residents were at work. There wasn’t much I could do. It was only when the residents came back the gravity of the problem was understood,” he said.

The ground staff at CPDCL has this explanation to offer: on October 2, a tree branch fell on a power line due to heavy rain and strong winds because of which there was power disruption at the CoP-11 venue. The trees in the gated community were touching the high tension cables running from Madhapur 132/33 KV and Jubilee Hills 132/33 KV substations to the venue which is why they were cut.