Just two weeks ago while driving along the road to Gundlupet with my family, I bemoaned the chopping down of majestic, age - old banyan trees for road widening which is going on there. Although I felt like writing an article about this loss upon my return home, I did not do so for two reasons.

One, nothing much is changed by one person moaning about a loss that others simply fail to see as one and secondly because this rather narrow road has of late become so busy with inter - State traffic that unless it is widened it will continue to remain the death zone that it now is.

Although there are ways and means of saving and retaining roadside trees despite the need to improve and develop our roads, the powerful vested interests that stand to benefit by tree - felling continue to call the shots with no one willing to see environmental concerns or heed powerless environmentalists who are at best seen only as a nasty nuisance.

Yesterday in what can be called a completely avoidable tragedy, the life of a thirty – three – year - old lady was snuffed out near Gundlupet when the branch of a tree that was being chopped fell on the car she was travelling in. While the news made gut wrenching reading in my evening paper yesterday, I found that it was not considered important enough to be carried in most broadsheets today. I fail to understand how the people entrusted with the very hazardous job of tree - felling could have gone ahead with it without taking the necessary precaution of warning all road users well ahead of the spot and also stopping the traffic completely at a safe distance before allowing the branches to fall down.

A greater tragedy is that very soon this tragic incident like many others that have gone before it, will be forgotten without any lessons being learnt whatsoever. A perfunctory enquiry will soon serve as a formal closing ceremony with perhaps a token monetary penalty which serves no purpose in this case as the victim happens from a well to do family. If the victim had been a poor villager, we would all have seen pictures in all the newspapers of a very concerned Minister or MLA flanked by a retinue of officials, handing over a cheque to tearful members of the victim’s family. In our country such touching pictures are enough to touch people’s hearts and keep the image of the government high and also keep the votes flowing in the right direction. And, the formality of an enquiry if it is conducted will certainly not get to the bottom of the cause and quantum of the negligence and we will never see the culprits getting the deterrent punishments that they richly deserve.

Next week if you happen to pass that way, I am sure that you will see the same killer contractor with the same band of inept workers continuing to fell the remaining trees. On many occasions, I have seen tree - felling and even rock - blasting work being done with explosives along the roadside without the presence of any Police personnel or even warning signs. Very often without men in khaki, which is the only deterrent colour which Indians heed a little, road - users too simply ignore any warning signs that may have been put up for their own safety. It should be made mandatory for all hazardous jobs on roads and highways to be taken up only with Police supervision to avoid all avoidable accidents which have become so commonplace on our roads. It is also time we stopped burying reports of enquiries along with our accident victims.

Another tree - felling tragedy:
Nearer home too, in the heart if the city, much tree - felling is going on constantly over the past few days in the name of development. I wish development involved some tree planting too along with the more important “tree – nurturing” that is required to keep all the ceremonially planted trees growing without beginning to wilt the very next day after they are planted as we see now.

The Mirza Road that passes alongside Nishat Bagh seems all set for widening since the fence has now been realigned to encroach a good five feet of the park in an act that is perhaps illegal and therefore questionable. This leads me to believe that all the copper - pod trees that stand majestically in a row alongside this road are going to be very short - lived with the bright yellow flowers they shed on the road being their swan - song. A couple of years ago, to overcome public protests, the portion of the Theobald Road that passes in front of Siddhartha Hotel was also widened by adopting the same strategy of refencing the park.

The Karanji Vihara Marga that connects the Bannur road and the Lalitha Mahal road, which has now become a very important and busy connecting link after the closure of the Karanji Tank Bund Road, is also set for widening according to reports in Star of Mysore, an evening daily published from Mysore. This widening actually looks like a covert operation by the authorities to give an alternate route and permanently close the once beautiful Karanji Tank Bund road to the public and include it in the Zoo premises on the lines of the encroachment of “Thandi Sadak” which went unresisted.

Although we were all told that the closure of the tank bund road was a temporary measure only till the construction of the aquarium was completed, the closure now seems permanent, going by unofficial reports. If this is so, we Mysoreans will be denied the pleasure and privilege of driving along this once beautiful road and watching the magical play of moonlight on the serene lake by night. In fact this road should be widened a little and all the stone benches that were once there should be restored to bring back its beauty as a free tranquil zone without allowing any commercialisation.

I have written about this more than once in the past in my column but no other Mysoreans seemed to be interested in taking up the matter. I hope that at least now all the Bapus, the Vombatkeres, the Bhamys and the Mysoremaths, along with good old Star of Mysore, will come to the help of Mysore which is becoming increasingly helpless at the hands of callous government officials.