• Get Forest Department to plant new trees
• Stop MCC from widening the road

Mysuru: It was a black Sunday for Mysureans. On April 13, 2025, Sunday, Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) and the Forest Department jointly executed what Star of Mysore called ‘Green Carnage’, mercilessly felling 45 fully grown trees with rich foliage. Answer given, to those who questioned this irrational, untenable and unpardonable action, is unacceptable to any Mysurean.

MCC wanted to widen this very short stretch of Hyder Ali Road — flanked on one side by the compound wall of the Karnataka Police Academy and on the other side by the office compound of the Superintendent of Police (SP). It is not a commercial road and naturally traffic at all times is not heavy. The whole operation, executed like a military surgical strike, in the night was both                                    cowardly and motivated.

Now no one can undo what has been done. However, the perpetrators of this crime should not be allowed to enjoy the fruits of their crime. Therefore, Mysureans should ensure that MCC cannot proceed with its purported plan to widen this road and the Forest Department, to atone for their sins, plant new saplings on either side of the road and nurture them to grow.

The protest and agitation now planned should extract these two demands which may act as a deterrent against such unlawful, anti-people actions of the officials in the future. Going to the Court for Justice at this stage may be an advantage to the MCC and the Forest Department, hence best avoided.

— K.B. Ganapathy, Editor-in-Chief