Published in South Express on 8.4.23

Sankey is not an isolated episode. History has seen many such episodes. In 18th Century, 363 Bishnoi’s laid down their lives for the protection of Khejri trees in the Khejarli village of Rajasthan. One of the 29 principles of the community speaks about protecting trees and the other  stresses the need for protecting animals. The world renowned Chipko movement had lots of challenges. The unfortunate death due to his 111 days fast unto death agitation of Gurudas Agrawal, an ace environmentalist, engineer, religious leader and professor demanding action against polluting industries of river Ganga evoked lukewarm interest among the bureaucracy and political bigwigs. Bhopal tragedy has not yet faded from our memory. Similar examples are innumerable.

Whether it is citizens’ voice against Char Dham Road project of Himalayas, anti-Sterlite agitation in Tuticorin or Central Vistas of New Delhi, Aravalli agitation, activists are blamed for the activism and condemned as anti-development protagonists. On the one hand our leadership only makes tall claims of voicing our strong views in COP 27 at Egypt and pledges that India will strictly adhere to net zero emissions. On the other, we circumvent the time-tested legal provisions of the land to appease the corporates who are least cared about environmental concerns. When disasters happen and Joshimath’s disappear, expert committees do postmortem just to pile up the papers in the dusted record rooms of Government departments.

Coming back to what happened in Bangalore is astonishingly strange when the century old trees were paving way to the Sanky Flyover construction project in Sankey road , Malleswaram Bangalore adjacent to Sankey tank. It was a peaceful march wearing black shirts to save 55 heritage trees. The protesters hugged the trees and demanded shelving the projects. Signature campaigns were held. All these in non-violent manner. What prompted the law makers to file FIR on April 1st against 60-70 protesters is not clear though the charges indicated that wrongful confinement, unlawful assembly and obstruction of public ways. Under sections 341,141, 149 and 283 of IPC. Threatening people will never silence the lawful people’s movement. History has seen many such onslaughts and may continue to see in future too.. One thing is clear, the residents are determined to take the movement forward. Already many videos have gone viral. Everyone knows that the garden city is slowly losing its charm. Lakes are drying and birds are vanishing. Once known as retirement heaven, Bangalore is slowly becoming a garbage city. Bangalore is no more a garden city with increasing population, mushrooming of IT industries and concrete jungles.

The hasty decision of the Police makes one wonder whether they are unknowingly helping the protesters to ‘make the movement’ go viral. They may also quote the usual excuse, ‘uper se pressure’ (pressure from higher-ups). Interestingly, the local MLA is allegedly against the protests.Perhaps he has forgotten that the election is round the corner. State election has been declared already. Hardly one month is left out. And of course, the politicians are busy hunting vote banks and have no time for all such ‘trivial’ issues. The civic and environmental problems of the city are plenty.  Felling trees will further aggravate the microclimate. Will the officials understand the seriousness of the issues and take corrective measures?