The Karnataka Milk Federation is all set to construct a Bull Mother Farm in Bengaluru’s Hesaraghatta area at the cost of 1,500 trees.
Environmentalists and green activists have expressed concern over the felling of 1,500 trees.
According to a report by Deccan Herald, the Karnataka government had given permission for building the Bull Mother Farm in 2013. It had sanctioned 100 acres for the project in Byatha, a village in Hesaraghatta, located on Bengaluru’s outskirts.
“Of the sanctioned land, 75 acres will be used for growing grass while administration and research centres will come up on 25 acres. We need to clear the trees to construct buildings and for grass farming,” Hesaraghatta KMF joint director B Mayanna told TNM.
The report states that the villagers have opposed the felling of trees and have argued that the project should not harm the trees.
“KMF has schemes meant for helping dairy farmers. Now they are felling thousands of trees and nobody knows what research they will do here. Their help to farmers need not come at such a huge cost,” said Ramanna, a resident of Byatha village told DH.
However, Mayanna has said that trees will be replanted in other parts of the village and that the organisation had no other option but to fell these trees.
He said that KMF has already given Rs 5 lakh to the Karnataka Forest Department for planting 5,000 saplings and 600 of these have already been planted.
The DH report states that the Bull Mother Farm will also harm the Byatha Lake, which supports a host of birds. This has angered residents of the village, who are now demanding that the farm be relocated to another area.
In May, 30 silver oak trees on the Hesaraghatta Main Road were hacked by the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation.
The trees, which had formed a beautiful canopy outside the Sapthagiri Engineering College, were felled as KPTC officials feared they were a threat to the power lines.