The road along the Durgam Cheruvu wears a bald look for a few days now. Several peepal trees lining the road on the side of the lake are shorn of all the greenery.
Large branches of the trees on footpaths have been chopped off, leaving a sorry spectacle of bare branches. Removed of its green quotient, the lake, promoted as one of the choicest tourist spots, looks exposed and vulnerable.
Looking at the line up of tree trunks, one would easily assume it to be a translocation effort by the civic authorities, in an effort to widen the road. However, GHMC authorities, who are the custodians of the trees, the footpath as well as the road, deny that they have anything to do with the branch cutting, or translocation.
“We do not have any projects on the stretch. Our people say it is the doing of the TSSPDCL staff,” said an official from GHMC.
Branch cutting is the routine for the Southern Power Distribution Company Limited whenever the tree growth interferes with the supply lines. However, this time, they, too, refused to own responsibility. No branch cutting has taken place on the stretch during recent times, TSSPDCL officials from the CBD (Central Breakdown) wing of Banjara Hills said.
“I am sure it is the mischief of some private builder who thinks that the trees are blocking the facade of the structure. They chose a time when everybody was busy during elections. I am afraid they will finish the job if action is not taken,” says P. Uday Krishna from Vata Foundation, who first brought this infringement to light by posting it on social media.
Tagging the Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, the GHMC and the Forest department, he posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the issue, with no department responding to it so far.
