Save the Banyans of Chevella!

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on May 13, 2019

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NHAI begins work even as matter is in National Green Tribunal

Slowdown Place being dismantled to make way for the road. It will be re-built later. The campaign to protect the century-old banyans on the Hyderabad-Manneguda road is facing continued challenges as road widening for NH-163 has begun near Himayatnagar Village with a few buildings already demolished. Even as the authorities had offered assurances that they would do minimal damage, it appears that more than 700 of the 914 banyans will be removed from the Chevella-Vikarabad stretch. On December 23rd 2022, members of the Nature Lovers of Hyderabad, which has been running the Save Chevella Banyans campaign, met a group of about 10 people from NHAI at the banyans after Moinabad. The group included Mr P Nageswara Rao - General Manager (Tech) and PD, NHAI; Sriram Murthy - Contractor; and Vijay Kumar - Consultant to NHAI. The NHAI representatives said that there would be 20 flyovers over a 46 km stretch, each flanked by service roads, to avoid the existing villages/habitations along the curren

Missing/damaged/obliterated banyans as of end May 2023

In June 2022, the Nature Lovers of Hyderabad documented and geotagged all the Chevella road Banyan trees, which were in danger of being felled because of the proposed widening of NH-163. We geotagged 914 banyan trees between Appa Junction and Manneguda, of which three had been recently felled. On June 29, 2022, 911 road-lining Banyan trees were standing and, in addition to the lat-long coordinates and (at least) two photographs each, we collated data on the approximate girth, the presence or absence of prop roots, evidence of chopped branches and nature of burns (if any). The resulting database was meant to serve as a precise record against which we could monitor the health and safety of the Banyans. In February 2023, we came to know that a banyan tree had been felled, and our investigations showed that Banyan No. 459 had indeed been chopped down. In May 2023, we heard of a few trees being set on fire, and of at least one tree falling down because of the burns. We therefore decided t

Finally, a meeting with the Telangana government representatives

From right to left: Mr Bhoopal Reddy, IAS, Kobita Das Kolli, Sadhana Ramchander, Asiya Khan, Mr Krishna Prasad, Regional Director, NHAI, Mr Rakesh Mohan Dobriyal, PCCF, Mr Nageswara Rao, General Manager and PD, NHAI and Azam Khan. 27 October 2022: We were invited by Mr Bhoopal Reddy garu (IAS), Special Secretary to the Chief Minister, for a meeting with Mr Krishna Prasad, Regional Director, NHAI, and Mr Rakesh Mohan Dobriyal, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Telangana. We were given a patient hearing and could say everything we ever wanted to say from our views on translocation to leaving Mudimiyal forest as is, to declaring the Hyderabad-Vikarabad road as a heritage road. Mr Bhoopal Reddy was very receptive and understood that the banyans, the grasslands, and the entire ecosystem need protection. He said, "No one would touch trees and all the creatures that live on them if they had voting rights. Just because they don't, we cannot do what we like." He was very cle

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