Written By murali772 - 14 July, 2011

Bangalore Road Works Connectivity Road widening Citizen Reports mobility efficiency environment

Following is the text of the letter addressed to

• Shri S. Suresh Kumar, Minister for Urban Development, Government of Karnataka
• Smt. Sharadamma, Worshipful Mayor, BBMP
• Shri S. Harish, Deputy Mayor, BBMP
• Dr. A. Ravindra, IAS (Retd.), Advisor to Hon’ble Chief Minister on Urban Affairs
• Shri K. Jairaj, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka
• Shri K.M. Shivakumar, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development Department, Government of Karnataka
• Shri S. K. Lohia, Director (Urban Transport) and OSD, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India
• Shri. Sidddaiah, IAS, Commissioner, BBMP

by Dr. Harini Nagendra, Ms. Jahnavi Pai and Dr. H. S. Sudhira, on behalf of 71 academicians and researchers from different institutions and experts in Bengaluru and Karnataka.

As researchers and academics working in Bengaluru, we witness with great anguish and alarm the wide scale felling of tens of thousands of trees that has taken place across the city over the past few years in the name of road expansion and infrastructure development. We also note with alarm that new projects are announced daily, and the scale of tree feeling that Bengaluru is set to witness in the next few years will be even more than it has faced in the past. We believe strongly that such large scale plans are destructive for the city, and not required. As scientists and professionals with a strong background in research, we suggest that careful analysis of the current situation and a scientific search for sustainable alternatives is urgently required. Please find a public statement of our concerns and recommendations below.

We thank you for your attention to our concerns. We would be happy to help to put together an interdisciplinary, scientific panel of internationally and nationally recognized experts from different areas of inquiry including traffic and transport, ecology, urban planning and human well being to assist with a search for an alternative approach.

Thanking you,

Text of the Public Statement (in English) enclosed with above letter (both English and Kannada versions, along-with the list of signatories, are in the attachments)

Bengaluru-wide road widening is misguided, short term and environmentally destructive: Urgently requires scientific assessment

The recent felling of 18 trees by BBMP along the Sankey tank bund is a fallout of the misguided, short term and inadequate solution to increasing traffic congestion through road-widening envisaged by Bengaluru’s elected representatives. Traffic congestion is undoubtedly one of the pressing issues in Bengaluru city. However, BBMP has been attempting to address this through ‘supply side measures’ – by way of road widening. On this pretext it has been systematically felling trees that have rendered the streets devoid of any shade or other ecosystem services. We have reasons to believe that this approach is unscientific and unsustainable.

Worldwide numerous scientific studies have pointed out that 'supply side measures' like road widening will not solve the problem of traffic congestion. In a congested network expanding the capacity by way of an additional link is only going to increase the traffic and will be counterproductive, as numerous studies have established. Instead, the introduction of 'demand side management' measures like regulation of on-street parking and congestion tax will be much more useful to tackle congestion.

This leads us to question the felling of trees for the purpose of road-widening. The trees that were felled along the bund of Sankey tank included Syzigium, Tamarind and 3 species of Ficus – all important resources for supporting urban biodiversity. This felling unfortunately represents just a small fraction of the massive loss in tree cover that Bengaluru will experience as a consequence of road widening. A mega project of road-widening has been planned for 216 roads in Bengaluru. There is extensive research demonstrating how street trees are crucial for a city, providing crucial environmental services, reducing temperature and mitigating air pollution, as well as providing important ecological habitats and corridors for many migratory and endangered species.

Though the BBMP claims to plant 2-3 saplings for each tree that is felled, these saplings are not planted on the same roads where felling is done, or even in publicly accessible areas but instead they are planted in remote locations. Their survival rate is poor, and it takes at least a couple of decades for saplings to grow to provide anywhere near the same environmental and ecological benefits that these large felled trees provide today. A sterile and concretised urban environment is not only unsustainable but also unhealthy for city-dwellers. We urge that a thorough, scientific assessment of environmental and social impacts of projects must be undertaken, including verification of claims of reduction in traffic congestion, before executing these large scale, ill designed, faulty and environmentally damaging plans for massive road widening at the city scale in Bengaluru.

The scientific community coming out openly like this is indeed a welcome development. It is going to be difficult now for the powers that be to ignore this call.

Muralidhar Rao

 

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