Sir,

This refers to the front-page news item titled “Flyover, Highway Expansion Projects: 561 Trees To Be Axed” in Star of Mysore dated May 5.

As a concerned citizen, I strongly express my objection to the axing of these trees. I urge the Forest Department to protect what is left of our glorious city’s flora.

Given the rising temperatures in Mysuru, which have been exacerbated by the serial felling of trees, it would be a significant loss to lose this canopy.

Over the last two decades, I have lived alongside and breathed the purified air of these trees. For the better part of a century, these trees have mitigated climate change, reduced energy costs and improved our well-being at the cost of absolutely nothing.

As educated citizens, we understand the critical need to conserve and preserve our trees, ecosystems and wildlife.

Planting saplings alone is not a panacea for the damage caused by uprooting trees which have matured over hundreds of years.

Felling over 500 trees is an ecological atrocity that affects not only us, but our planet and the millions of symbiotic organisms that live in them. A multitude of species, such as birds, mammals, insects, fungi and other plants, depend on each of these trees for survival.

Ours is a progressive nation and I am proud to belong to a country with constructive views on nature conservation. I am certain that our most creative architects and planners can find eco-friendly and biophilic alternatives to this project.

I urge the Forest Department to consider our objections earnestly.

– Shawana Haneefi, Mysuru, 6.5.2026

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