[Attachment(s) from Syed Tanveeruddin included below]
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2012 7:21 am
Subject: karnataka preservation of trees act - views as on friday, october 12, 2012
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2012 7:21 am
Subject: karnataka preservation of trees act - views as on friday, october 12, 2012
I've been unable to give my inputs / suggestions in detail due to the unavailability of time.
The preservation of trees can/could perhaps be genuinely achieved upto a certain extent if no official from the Municipality and Urban Development Authority or politician is made a member of the tree authority.
About a year ago the husband of a lady corporator (of some locality/area near Kuvempunagar in Mysore City) allegedly razed the trees inside the park in the name of development by claiming that the then Mayor (Mr. Sandesh Swamy) had allegedly given permission for their razing in his official capacity as the Chairman / Chairperson / Supremo of the Tree Authority.
Only the Karnataka Forest Department (KFD) should be given the right for the surgical / scientific trimming / pruning of the tree branches by providing adequate manpower, equipment and vehicles. The trimming / pruning of tree branches by the linemen of Electricity Supply Companies (ESCOMs) and/or Electricity Supply Corporations (ESCs) should be made illegal and should be permitted only under/in the rarest of the rare cases/circumstances or during emergencies.
There should be an exemplary punishment for the policemen who claim that the protection of trees is not one of their duties and brazenly ask the citizens not to inform the police about illegal tree fellings / razings either telephonically (to the control rooms) or by/through SMS/SMSes or by email.
People attending public hearing should not have any covert / overt / direct / indirect affiliation to any political party. Anti-social elements (claiming their political affiliation to RWAs) had tried to hijack an open air public hearing conducted near the Lalitha Mahal Road in June 2009 regarding/on the proposal to indiscriminately and unnecessarily / needlessly fell 200 plus trees to widen the Lalitha Mahal Road in Mysore City in order to convert it into a expressway for VVIP and VIP Traffic. So one of the Green NGOs had allegedly claimed to have the brought the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) activists to counter them. Fortunately the then DCF did not give permission to fell the trees after the public hearing as most members of the general public (from the entire city) objected against/to the tree felling. It was only because the then Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) Ms. Sashwati Mishra was a lady forest officer of an unimpeachable honesty and integrity.
A couple of weeks after the public hearing she was cornered by the elected (MLAs / Corporators) and unelected politicians (Ex-MLAs and Ex-Corporators) and officials of various departments [Public Works Department (PWD), Mysore City Police (MCP), Mysore City Corporation (MCC), Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA),] ..etc. but the lady forest officer fortunately stood her ground (like Jhansi Rani Lakshmi Bai of post-Independent India).
The Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) of all the Karnataka Forest Department (KFD) officials should be written only by the Karnataka Forest Department officials (IFS officers) and not by the IAS/KAS officers as there have been alleged instances of honest DCFs yielding to relentless pressure and alleged threats from some alleged Deputy Commissioners of Mysore to give permission to tree fellings in the name of development ever since the JNNURM funds were sanctioned for Mysore City.
One of the former ACFs of Mysore had claimed in June 2011 that since the raintree is not a native species the large hearted / dariya dilwaala / dodda manassina / hrudayada forest department cannot or could not deny permission to fell it. So, any usage of the phrase "suitable native species" anywhere / somewhere in the Karnataka Tree Preservation Act or Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976 (KPT Act, 1976) may/might (God forbid) have disastrous / dangerous consequences / repercussions for preservation of trees in the entire state of Karnataka. There are hundreds of raintrees in Mysore City which includes the Mysore Zoo. If the flawed logic of the Ex-ACF of Mysore is accepted then the Mysore City will/would soon become a Mini Thar Desert.
One of the DCFs whom I'd met in person in June 2011 had claimed that the moment someone files a/an formal/informal application that the tree is obstructing vehicular traffic the forest department had no other option but to give permission to fell the tree by default as a thumb rule. I could see the tension on his face as the then Deputy Commissioner was allegedly pressuring him to give permission to fell at least two out of four raintrees opposite to the Mysore Zoo Entrance/Gate.
The Karnataka Forest Department (KFD) was almost ready to give permission to fell / raze / axe / cut 300 plus trees (most of them raintrees) to oblige the desperate requests of the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) to construct an ill conceived treeless Raja Marga / Royal Path along the yearly / annual Jumboo Savari / Dasara Procession route as the Mysore district administration desperately wanted the proposed treeless Raja Marga to resemble the Rajpath in New Delhi. This Raja Marga is being constructed/laid just for the sake of one day (Vijayadashami) and just for the sake of Dasara Procession. Several 100s/hundreds of trees, tree roots/branches/trunks have been mutilated in 2011 because the MCC and the forest department believe that permission will/should be formally/informally granted to any work that is being carried out in the name of development.
Applications are being filed for tree felling claiming that the tree leaves and flowers fall on the buildings / roofs / cars / two-wheelers and the trees or tree branches are obstructing the visibility of wine stores / pubs / liquor shops. The Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976 or KPT Act, 1976 which has withstood the test of time perhaps till/until 1989/1990 needs to be fine tuned so that the tree is not demonised / demonized / perceived / imagined as an omnipresent obstructionist for the free flow of vehicular traffic and so that none of its clauses / sub-clauses / sections / subsections are maliciously / intentionally / deliberately misinterpreted / misconstrued / misused.
Most/Some of the Executive Members or Directors of a local RWA (Residents' Welfare Association) may/might nurse/have political ambitions (either for themselves or for their relatives or family members) and are usually directly / indirectly / covertly / overtly affiliated to some political party or the other. For instance the lady corporator of the right wing party of the locality/area (Siddharthanagar, Mysore City) in which I reside is also one of the 15 directors of the RWA. The RWA unfortunately tries to appease her in whichever way it can/could. So, it becomes conflict of vested/self interests unless and until each and every member of the (proposed) tree committee (if any) at the ward level is non-political/apolitical and is not remote controlled by vested/self interests.
Tanveer (Syed Tanveeruddin, Siddharthanagar, Ward Number 63, Mysore)
Due to some technical fault with the petitionsite the number of target signatures have been unfortunately and embarrassingly increased to 1000 (without manual/my intervention) and I the petition creator have been unable to reset / restore it back to 100 as none of the petitions on the above website can/could be edited / updated for the past one year or so (since 2011).
http://www.petitiononline.com/treesact/ (Fully in English)
http://www.petitiononline.com/kpttrees/ (Tree types trilingually in English, Hindi and Kannada)
http://www.petitiononline.com/acttrees/ (Fully in English)
Tanveer / तन्वीर / ತನ್ವೀರ್
Syed Tanveeruddin / सैयद तन्वीरुद्दीन / ಸೈಯದ್ ತನ್ವೀರುದ್ದೀನ್
Mysore, Karnataka / मैसूर, कर्नाटक / ಮೈಸೂರು, ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ
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Attachment(s) from Syed Tanveeruddin
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