Bengaluru is the IT capital of the country. Due to a large number of companies in the city advertisements, especially through hoardings, have become an important aspect in order to promote a company. But this has started causing serious damage to the Garden city. Trees are being cut down in order to increase the visibility of the hoarding.
This incident happened just a few days ago. Around 25 trees were cut down along the outer ring road just so that a hoarding can be clearly visible. This caused an uproar among the residents of Bellandur. To show their anger against the so-called ‘hoarding mafia’, the residents organized a peaceful demonstration. The peaceful demonstration was organized in order to protest against the felling of trees and in support of the conservation of rapidly declining green cover in the city.
This demonstration was met with great support from the surrounding residential areas like Electronics City, JP Nagar, Cox Town, Jayanagar and HSR layout. More than 70 people from these areas joined in the peaceful demonstration.
People from all age groups actively participated in the protest; the most active ones were the kids. Some kids spoke out with passion against the ongoings around the city claiming that they wanted to protect the title of garden city and wanted to protect the city from a future without trees.
The city has been ailing for quite a while now because of these things. Big software companies don’t mind cutting down trees in order to put up big hoardings to promote their companies. This has led to serious depletion of the green cover.
This protest triggers a civilian movement against these actions. Being called as the hoarding mafia, the companies have been involved in the desecration of the garden city altogether. But this demonstration aims to take actions against those who are responsible for this and conserve the greenery of the city.
To further push the conservation action, a signature campaign has been started by the residents that started the demonstration. Almost 100 people have already signed to support the action against the people behind these incidents. The demand is going to be submitted to the Forest department and Lokayukta in hopes that swift action will be taken against the culprits. Vijay Nishanth, a tree expert, has already filed 3 FIRs against the hoarding mafia.
This incident is 4th one that has happened so far. Nishanth hopes that with this peaceful demonstration people can show how much they care about the green cover of the city. Furthermore, the residents have resolved in taking care of the stumps by treating it properly and watering it regularly so that it can be revived.