Thousands, if not lakhs, of trees and saplings planted as part of the Haritha Haram programme along the Outer Ring Road, may have been removed to make way for expansion of the service road and the solar roofed cycling track. The HMDA authorities, however, vehemently refute the charge.
P. Uday Krishna, founder of Vata Foundation, brought this to the public notice by posting Google Earth images from 2021 and 2023 on social media to show the contrast about massive erasure of vegetation along the service road where the cycling track has been laid.
Ironically, the 23-kilometre track is named ‘Healthway’, and touted as an environment friendly project as it encourages cycling, while produces solar power. It is being constructed in two stretches -- between Nanakramguda and Telangana State Police Academy, covering 8.5 kilometre, and from Narsingi up to Kollur, covering 14.5 kilometres. The avenue plantation along the Outer Ring Road was one of the trump cards that helped Hyderabad win the Tree City of the World Award. “Roadside Multi Layered Avenue plantations – length 881.5 Km, numbering 37,27,805,” was one of the key statistic for the award.
But now, food courts, drinking water and bicycle repair shops are set to come up along the track, the roof of which will produce around nine megawatts of power. A RESCO operator will bear the capital expenditure, and maintain it for 25 years.
Mr. Uday Krishna claims that lakhs of trees with medium growth which were planted in 2017-18 were removed to make way for two projects -- Outer Ring Road service road expansion and solar roofed cycling track.
“There was a footpath and a stormwater drain, and at least five to six rows of trees earlier along the service road on the route between Nanakramguda and TSPA. Footpath has been removed, and the drain has been shifted, and except one, all the rows of trees have been removed. Similar is the case with the stretch between Narsingi and Kollur,” he said, pointing to the difference between the stretch where the cycling track has come up and the one where it does not exist. Development of a new interchange near Kokapet too has impacted trees, he says.
The trees may have been planted between 2017 and 2018, when the government had announced plans to plant 25 lakh saplings along the 158 kilometres of ORR. Satellite images from Google Earth as posted by Mr. Uday Krishna show massive difference in the greenery quotient between 2021 and 2023.
When asked, Metropolitan Commissioner Arvind Kumar rubbished the claim, and vehemently denied having removed greenery on the stretch. Seasonal difference may have impacted the images, he said, and questioned the veracity of the pictures.
“The question of removing trees doesn’t arise,” he affirmed.
Attempts towards independent verification by this reporter yielded a satellite image from October 2022, where removal of the trees was half way in progress along the ORR service road between TSPA and Narsingi, the exact location where the cycling track can be seen in the images from April 2023.
