Attempts by the government to fell a 300-year-old banyan tree near the Chulliyar Dam, near Muthalamada, citing possible threat to the safety of the masonry dam, has incurred the wrath of the local community and the environmentalists.
People have begun writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to protect the tree. A mass memorandum was sent on Thursday to Water Resources Minister P.J. Joseph requesting to drop the plan to cut the tree.
“The move to fell the tree is dubious. The State government and the Water Resources Department were never bothered about the risk posed to the dam by four large granite quarries and 20 smaller ones in the locality. The tree is in fact protecting the dam by spreading its roots in areas vulnerable to soil erosion,” says S. Guruvayurappan, project director of Wildlife Protection Society of India.
The department, which initially attempted to fell the tree, has now altered the plan. It says it will cut the branches which have spread to a vast area. But local people say they will not allow even a branch to be cut. They blame the timber mafia for the plan to cut the tree. On Wednesday, activists of a voluntary organisation Ashrayam Youth for Wildlife formed a human chain around the tree with youngsters from Chittur, Alathur, and Nenmara regions.
“The tree’s aerial roots have grown into the soil forming trunks and they stabilise the dam. ,” says Prashanth Randeth, a social activist of Thathamangalam. He says it is the only shade giving tree close to the dam built on a tributary of the Gayathri river.
