Greens to hold candlelight vigil and ‘11th day death ceremony’ rituals for 40 axed trees

Environmentalists holding an emergency meeting at Cheluvamba Park in Mysuru on Monday to chalk out a programme to protest the axing of 40 trees on the Hyder Ali Road.
| Photo Credit: M.A. Sriram

A day after about 40 full-grown trees on Hyder Ali Road in the city were felled, environmentalists held an emergency meeting and resolved to hold a candlelight vigil and ‘11th day death ceremony’ rituals for the axed trees as part of their two-phased programme.

More than 110 members representing 12 different organisations, including Parisara Balaga, Mysore Grahakara Parishat, Mysuru unit of People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Team Mysuru Foundation, and Let’s Do It Mysuru, gathered at Cheluvamba Park on Monday and took a pledge to ‘Save Mysuru Trees’.

They also formed a ‘Struggle Committee’ comprising members of various organisations that participated in the meeting on Monday, for this purpose.

Parashurame Gowda of Parisara Balaga told The Hindu that they will hold a two-phased programme to highlight their protest against the felling of trees on Hyder Ali Road.

To voice protest, a candlelight vigil will be held on April 18 on the road on which the trees were felled.

Subsequently, the activists will hold death ceremony rituals for the felled trees on the 11th day by planting saplings at the spot where the trees stood, Mr. Gowda said, adding that their gesture was aimed at conveying a message that the trees were also living beings.

The environmentalists also expressed their anger and disappointment over the Forest Department for permitting the Mysuru City Corporation to chop off trees for widening the road.

Regarding the Forest Department’s excuse that a public hearing was not required if fewer than 50 trees were cut down, the environmentalists alleged that the officials of the Forest Department and the Public Works Department colluded with the timber mafia by carrying out tree-felling in phases to evade the law on public hearings.

“Even when 200 trees are cut down, they are chopped off in phases of 47 or 48,” an environmentalist alleged.