Hyderabad: HMDA Secures Tree-Cutting Permission Amid Air Quality Concerns

Hyderabad: At a time when the air quality in the city is deteriorating, the HMDA has secured permission for the axing of 473 trees. These are among the 1,094 trees to be translocated, relocated and felling for widening and strengthening the road from Miyapur crossroads to Gandimaisamma crossroads.

The request by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) to chop the trees was approved by the tree protection committee of the forest department.

The HMDA engineering department has paid Rs.6.99 lakh to the forest department for the purpose.

Of the lot, eighteen trees are to be retained and 603 are to be translocated.

The permission was accorded to HMDA for felling, translocation as per the provision of WALTA Act, 2002. The HMDA has been asked to plant thrice the number of trees permitted for feeling and that it should maintain the translocated trees for three years.

An RTI activist from the city, Vinay Vangala, citing the news report published in Deccan Chronicle on November 25 related to deteriorating air quality in the city, expressed dissent against the task of axing of trees.

“Trees are being chopped and the Haritha Haram teams have failed. I just hope Hyderabad doesn’t become the next Delhi,” he said.