Fault Haritha Haram for Power Cuts: TS Officials

Hyderabad: The Telangana Ku Haritha Haram project may have made parts of the state look green but when it comes to the trees planted under this pet project of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, state electricity officials apparently see red.

The tree plantation drive is also vigorously promoted by BRS Rajya Sabha MP J. Santosh Kumar, who has not only been at the forefront of encouraging people to plant trees, but has also adopted large forest blocks for their protection, as well as their development as urban forest parks.

And now, these Haritha Haram trees have been held responsible for some of the power supply disruptions in various parts of the state.

Making the revelation was CMD of TS Transco and TS Genco D. Prabhakar Rao in Vemulavada.

During an interaction with reporters on Monday at the temple town, Prabhakar Rao said that one of the reasons for some power supply disruptions were caused by falling trees, planted under Haritha Haram, or their branches, on power supply lines. His comment came while he was addressing questions on the power supply situation in the state and the supply position to the farm sector.

Responding to a query on whether Haritha Haram trees are indeed responsible for power supply disruption, a state forest department official admitted that there are issues of finding space to plant trees and it was inevitable that sometimes, trees would be planted close to existing power lines.

“The general instructions are that only trees that will have a short stature are to be planted near power lines. In some places, there may be limitations of space for planting trees. The electricity department never issued any guideline on planting trees vis a vis power lines,” the official said.

 “Sometimes, the trees are hacked in such a way by the electricity department staff that they have no chance of survival and die due to the overcutting,” the official said.

And, since the maintenance of the trees under Haritha Haram falls under the jurisdiction of the respective municipalities or gram panchayats, once planted, the forest department has no control over what happens to the trees.

According to another official from the department, the ‘clash’ between power lines and Haritha Haram trees is quite common on the stretch of avenue plantation between Moinabad and APPA Junction on the city outskirts.

Telangana state has around 12,000 kilometres of avenue plantations under the Haritha Haram programme, but neither the electricity department nor the forest department, of local authorities, maintain data on how many times the trees planted to increase green cover in the state have been responsible for power supply disruptions.