With the fresh reports of government is contemplating to translocate the age old banyan trees on the Chevella road, the environmental activists pull their socks up against the proposed move and held a protest on Sunday at the same stretch under the banner of “Save the Banyans of Chevella” demanding conservation of the trees that have natural-cum-heritage importance.
It is said that there are over 1100 banyan trees on the Chevella stretch – mostly planted when the historic Osman Sagar and Himayath Sagar Lakes were built on the Esi and Musi river tributaries, and is a part of a road widening proposal to pave way for a four-way-lane project.
Only two years back, the issue was surfaced in the section of media when the environmental activists pull up their socks to hit the road against the move to translocate the Banyan trees that provides an avenue passage to commuters from Moinabad to Vikarabad besides maintaining the balance between the ecological system and the biodiversity of the ambient environment in the area.
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A team of 60 environmental enthusiasts met at a gigantic banyan tree on Chevella road further passing into Vikarabad district. The theme is to attract the government’s attention towards the necessity to safeguard the trees of exceptional importance and heritage value through sketching and propagating the significance of biodiversity especially about the expanse of flora that helps the humans and the fauna to survive on the planet as an inextricable family.
“Following the protest in the year 2019, the government’s proposal sweeps under the carpet for almost two years only to resurface again last month when it was reported that road widening proposal was cleared by the central government that would pave way for trampling down of these falstaffian trees of huge importance just to execute the 4-lane project. Now, the Sword of Damocles is hanging again over the survival of more than 1100 banyan trees spreading from Moinabad, Chevella to Vikarabad as we learn that the government is preparing to move on with the proposal to trample the trees,” rued Asiya Khan, an environmental activist.
“We have seen avenue trees being planted spending huge amounts of money only to be axed after a few years because of road widening or making of a flyover. These banyans have been untouched for a century and are our heritage. Why touch them now?” contended Sadhana Ramchander, another nature enthusiast.
These banyan trees – that form an avenue cluster expanding from Moinabad to Vikarabad and beyond, are extremely precious green species with their falstaffian physical features coupled with lofty heights. According to agriculture experts, these trees produce a fruit like berries along with a specific type of flowers carrying pollen and released a good amount of pigment into air that causes fermentation in the clouds hovering into the sky resulting in bursting of rains.
Moreover, these trees are of extreme importance in maintaining the ecosystem. These gigantic trees doze down the impact of blowing winds and prevent an intending catastrophe during furious climatic conditions.
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“As part of a peaceful protest, a poetry reading session and poster painting by children and the enthusiasts was also rolls out in a pleasant location off the road under a gigantic banyan tree to emphasize the need to safeguard the trees especially the banyan species that was revered, researched and remedied since thousands of years in our nation,” explained Tejah Balantrapu, environmental activists who is one among the activists that took part in the protest.