Times of India: Bengaluru: Monday, March 12, 2018.
The bio-park of
Bangalore University’s Jnanabharathi campus lost 36 sandalwood trees in
slightly more than a year, a reply to an RTI query has revealed. Twenty-six of
these were chopped and smuggled by miscreants in December 2017 alone.
The
1,000-acre campus is home to the largest number of sandalwood trees in the
city; the bio-park itself is spread over 500 acres. While 340 trees have been
identified in the 300-acre part II of the park, a tree census is under way in
part I.
T J Renuka
Prasad, coordinator, bio-park, Jnanabharathi campus, has in his reply to an RTI
query said 36 tree-theft cases were reported from November 2016 to December
2017; 26 cases in December 2017 alone.
Activists
alleged that the numbers could be more as not all cases are reported. Veeraiah
Hiremath, a sportsperson and resident of Vinayaka Layout at Nayandahalli in
west Bengaluru, who had filed the RTI application, said the Bio-Park and other
parts of the campus don’t have fencing, making trespassing easy. “There are no
security guards at strategic locations. On an average, at least 10 trees are
chopped on the campus every week,” he added.
Drone
survey, geo-tagging on
On measures
taken to safeguard sandalwood trees, Prasad said they are in the process of
completing a census of sandalwood and other trees on the campus. “A survey is
being done using drones and we are also geo-tagging to ensure we have a
database of all sandalwood trees,” he added.
A BU official
said they are taking steps to close down illegal roads that cut through the
campus to check trespassing by cattle grazers and garbage dumping. “However, at
some points, we are facing legal hurdles and the matter is in court,” he added.
However,
activists like Veeraiah are not ready to buy such claims. “Whenever we lodge
complaints and raise our voice against sandalwood theft, BU officials say they
will do patrolling and place the matter before the syndicate. But in a few
days, everything will be back to square one,” he added.
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