Protect Mysuru’s Green Heritage

By Maj. Gen. (Retd.) S.G. Vombatkere

Politicians and bureaucrats view city development as constructing flyovers and widening roads. In the context of citizens’ objections to the felling of 561 trees for National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) projects in and around Mysuru, our MP stated that these proposed development works “will go ahead while protecting the environment.”

That is, flyovers and road-widening will be done anyway and the environment can be protected by retaining as many trees as possible and translocating trees that interfere with the works. Environmental ill-effects are collateral damage.

It leads to the question: Who benefits from flyovers and road-widening and who loses from damage to the environment? The answer is clear: Beneficiaries are motorists who may experience ‘sugama sanchara’ and all Mysuru residents lose not only the air-cleansing effect of trees (which counter the air-polluting exhaust gases) but also lose the cooling effect of Mysuru’s green cover.

Being the inheritors and custodians of Mysuru’s green heritage, residents strongly oppose such development. A newcomer or visitor to Mysuru may well ask, “What is green heritage?”

To answer the question, we need to step back about ninety years.

Mysuru’s green heritage

Maharaja Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar ruled over Mysore from 1894 to 1940. He was a visionary in many senses. Nalwadi’s visionary policy viewed tree planting as essential to public welfare. His legacy is evident in the tree-lined avenues of Mysuru and lakes surrounded by green cover.

In 1903, Nalwadi created the City Improvement Trust Board (CITB) for urban development planning, including tree-lined roads as a key component. Today, most visitors comment favourably upon Mysuru’s greenery, which cannot be experienced in a comparable Indian city. Thus, green heritage is one of Mysuru’s key attractions.

Following Independence, industrialisation was the focus of development. Even so, successive governments of Karnataka understood Nalwadi’s vision, that development should protect green cover for public benefit. Thus, Chief Minister D. Devaraj Urs steered the enactment of the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act (KTPA), 1976, with the stated object and reason as:

“Industrialisation and pressure of population have resulted in heavy destruction of tree growth in urban areas. Trees which provide shade, mitigate the extremes of climate, render aesthetic beauty, purify the polluted atmosphere, mute the noise, have been one of the first casualties of pressure on space in our cities and towns… We have reached the stage when it is incumbent to legislate to restrict and regulate the felling of trees and prescribe growing of a minimum number trees  where none exists.”

CITB’s successor MUDA (1988) continued this green heritage vision, with a ‘Green Mysuru’ policy focused on increasing green cover through tree planting, to compensate for urban development and encouraging community participation. MUDA also planned initiatives, including planting over 25,000 saplings annually.

As the years rolled by, Mysuru managed to retain much of its green heritage precincts of lakes and trees, thanks to the unremitting initiatives of residents.

 There is no doubt that flyovers and widened roads enable better movement of motor vehicles, at least at the beginning. However, activists quote the National Urban Transportation Policy (NUTP), which directs that the movement of people must be facilitated rather than facilitating the movement of motor vehicles (MVs).

More over experience shows that the growth of the MV population far exceeds the rate at which civic authorities can provide road space  which means flyovers and widened roads will fill up in just a few  years, taking the situation back to slow movement of vehicular  traffic.

Rather than insist upon development by constructing flyovers and widening roads to enable faster movement of MVs at the cost of cutting trees, government would be well advised to protect Mysuru’s green heritage and increase its green cover in accordance with Nalwadi’s vision.

May be it should stick to NUTP’s objective “…to ensure safe, affordable, quick, comfortable, reliable and sustainable access for the growing number of city residents to jobs, education, recreation and such other needs … by incorporating urban transportation as an important parameter at the urban planning stage rather than being a consequential requirement … [and] bringing about a more equitable allocation of road space with people rather than vehicles, as its main focus.”

Maj. Gen. (Retd.) S.G. Vombatkere is a vocal civic and environmental activist in Mysuru, advocating for the protection of urban green cover, the preservation of heritage ecosystems and strict adherence to environmental norms in developmental projects.