BENGALURU: More than 1 lakh trees were chopped across the state from 2018 to 2021 for building roads and highways, according to the Karnataka public works department (PWD).
Most of this green cover -- 56,629 trees -- made way for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) projects with the largest chunk of 11,078 cleared in 2018-19 for the Bengaluru-Nidaghatta project (NH 275) part of Bengaluru-Mysuru highway.
Although PWD has mentioned that 5.3 lakh saplings have been planted to replace the 1,03,538 trees chopped for the highway projects, a senior Karnataka forest officer told TOI that only 60-70% of these saplings survive. "The forest department maintains them for 10 years. Issues such as lack of rainfall or planting seeds on the sides of a road cause them to wither and die. Maintaining them in naturally dry areas such as those in North Karnataka is hard," the official stated. Activists argued that the saplings do not compensate for the loss of old trees.
