First an anecdote:
A young boy was driving alone in his car on a wild stormy night. It was raining heavily. He passed by a bus stop and saw three people standing, waiting for the bus. One was an old lady, who looked as if she was about to die. The second was an old friend who had once saved his life. The third was a young girl he had been dreaming about. In the young man’s car there was space for only one person as the smart seats in the rear were folded up and loaded with luggage. Thus he was left wondering whom he should choose to offer the lift. He was caught in a moral and ethical dilemma.

First he thought he should pick up the old lady because she was on the verge of dying and probably he could save her life. At the same time, he thought he could take the old friend because he had once saved his life and it should be a perfect chance for him to payback the debt of gratitude. There was also another thought that crossed his mind. If he did not take the young girl whom he was dreaming about, he would never be able to find her again. The young boy was indeed wise for his age. He gave the car keys to his old friend who was waiting at the bus stop and asked him to take the old lady to the hospital. And he stayed behind with his dream girl to go with her in the bus.

Moral:
Sometimes we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought limitations and start thinking outside the box.

The present controversy about widening of Lalitha Mahal Road has arisen because of the stubborn attitude and refusal on the part of protestors to think “outside the box”. These people should realise that no person in his sense would ever endorse felling of trees blindly like a terrorist killing innocent people for his avowed cause. Trees must be protected, ecological balance must be maintained. Yes. The same holds good about felling of trees on Lalitha Mahal Palace Road. But to say not a single tree should be cut sounds unrealistic if the road is to be widened. I have written enough and more on this issue inviting the wrath of environmental enthusiasts who refused to answer some questions:

Question 1: Why the Forest Department was allowed to give permission to fell well - grown trees with lush foliage providing beauty to the eyes of the beholders, oxygen for the lungs of the motorists and pedestrians alike, shade to the tired pedestrians and, most of all, a shelter and a perch for birds and squirrels, not forgetting the monkeys, in order to provide space for private builders whom, as examples, I had already mentioned in my earlier articles? Why the protest petered out and was not taken to its logical end by the NGOs?

Question 2: Do these protestors really believe this time round the Forest Department will oblige them? If it does, then the Department’s (Government’s) decision in giving permission to fell trees to private parties becomes suspect. Was there quid pro quo?

Question 3: And should the tree - felling be allowed only for the benefit of private enterprises and not for the benefit of lakhs of tax payers?

Question 4: Should the tree - lovers cry foul now while they were silent when the authorities were issuing licenses right, left and centre to construct Kalyan Mantaps, Club Houses, Apartment Buildings and Star Hotels on either side of the road and when new layouts were being made all around this heritage road, knowing fully well the traffic pressure will increase on this road as a result?

Question 5: How many of these tree - lovers, some of whom are in Mysore for about 25 years, had joined the protest demonstrations to save trees and the land reserved for the now abandoned Nehru Loka Project? I was among Azeez Sait, Sheila Irani, Jayadevaraja Urs and others.

What we need in Mysore city today is not a Tree Court or an organisation called Friends of Tree. After all, every human being, including timber merchants, forest officials and journalists alike, are “friends of trees”. Not enemies. What we need is a separate department in the Mysore City Corporation or in the Forest Department itself called the Tree Maintenance Department.

At present, trees are planted without proper selection of species or planning. For example, tall growing trees with long branches are planted anywhere they like and right under the electricity lines endangering people and causing frequent electricity failure. The suggested Tree Maintenance Department, with trained personnel armed with necessary equipment, should constantly monitor the wild and dangerous growth of trees and also trees that are quite old and precariously standing, ready to fall. The Tree Maintenance Department should then take action to prune them, cut the branches and keep the trees in good shape like in Singapore and Malaysia. If some of the NGOs are adamant about their cause, the bureaucracy too is not far behind in displaying a different kind of mindset.

Consider this:
The tender was called for widening the Lalitha Mahal Palace Road on Dec.13, 2008. The tender was approved on Feb. 27, 2009. The Work Order was issued during the first week of March 2009. The value of the Work Order is Rs. 4, 77,11, 802. [This was a project estimated to cost Rs. 5 crore]. This was the work financed from the Chief Minister’s Rs.100 crore grant given recently.

The authorities made an application to the Forest Department seeking permission to cut 130 trees on Feb. 25, 2009. That was about a week before the Work Order was issued. Since there was no response from the Forest Department, a reminder was sent on Apr. 23, 2009, almost after a month.
By this time the work on the box-type drain and the bridge had already commenced. A case of putting the cart before the horse. The Work Order should not have been issued by the authorities (MCC) without first getting permission to cut the trees. Now, to say that these trees cannot be cut and the contractor should make the Road is like asking the contractor to do the miracle.

At present, the debate, the discussions, the arguments and the counter - arguments are taking place between the NGOs, the Forest Department, the Corporation and the ultimate stakeholder motorists producing more heat than light. Now the work on the ground has made too much of progress that it is too late in the day to refuse permission to cut the trees discreetly and selectively. In the circumstances, it is imperative for the government itself to review the DCF's decision and allow the trees that must be removed to be felled in order to build the road that would last for another 100 years, just as the present one built by the Maharaja which has served us for almost 100 years.

Remember the anecdote? Let us act wisely like that young boy.

Once upon a time there was a King by name Adhipathi in a country called Timbuktu. He had two sons. The eldest son's name was Khadga Raja, the second son had an eponymous name Hasiru Raja as he was a lover of trees. Foreigners used to call him Green Prince. King Adhipathi had a neighbouring kingdom where there was an evil King who was planning to wage a war against the kingdom of Timbuktu.

When the secret agents of King Adhipathi brought the bad news of an imminent war, the King immediately called his Prime Minister, the Army General and his two sons for a meeting. After deliberating about the challenge of the enemy, the King Adhipathi asked the opinion of the Prime Minister whether to launch a pre-emptive strike or face the enemy when he attacks.

The Prime Minister said there should be neither a pre - emptive strike nor a war. When asked the reason, he said it would lead to death of soldiers and the subjects alike, apart from collateral damages. The King asked: What now? He suggested a peace talk. Diplomacy. At this juncture, the eldest son of the King Khadga Raja intervened and asked the Prime Minister, what if the enemy refused to sit down for a peace talk. The Prime Minister said there was no need to cross the river before one reached there. "We should always be positive in our thinking." The King then asked his eldest son Khadga Raja for his opinion. And the opinion was: He who is first to strike will always win the war. Offence is the best way of defence.

The King was impressed by his son's wisdom.

The King then turned to his second son Hasiru Raja. As was expected, he was against the war which would also result in the destruction of trees. The Green Prince suggested that he would have no objections for a war provided the war could be fought without killing soldiers and loss of trees. Everybody laughed at this apparently silly suggestion. How could a war be fought without killing soldiers? His elder brother Khadga Raja guffawed at the suggestion and said: Well you are asking for a pound of flesh from a living person without shedding a drop of blood as in the Shakespearean play Merchant of Venice.

There was a stunned silence in the King's Court. The Army General wanted to open his mouth but the King signalled him to keep quiet.

Then suddenly King Adhipathi, as if enlightened by some divine power and in the fashion of the wise King of the Jews, Solomon, declared that to resolve this problem of waging a war without killing soldiers, he would now take the advice of the NGOs. The King adjourned the Court. The NGOs held “Chintana – Manthana” Baitaks. Seminars were held for days where papers were submitted. Multimedia presentations were made with a database and graphic pictures of the death and destruction caused in World War I and II were shown to the King.

And then suddenly in a lightning operation, the enemy King marched into the kingdom of Timbuktu and took the King, his courtiers and the NGOs prisoners. The enemy King won the war without firing a single shot and killing a single soldier! Jai Ho the Green Prince!!!