With the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike planning to widen the Banaswadi Road and Wheeler Road, the days of many trees  in the area are numbered.

“Why are they widening this road,” asked Nitin, a marketing manager with a private firm.

He said traffic was not bad enough for complaints.

According to him, a newly-built railway over bridge has de-congested the road to a large extent and there was no need to cut more trees or widen the road to accommodate more traffic.

The Palike plans to widen the road from St Johns Road to Ring Road to 24 metres.

“We do not want any road widening and have told this to the government,” said Kodanada Reddy, the Banaswadi councillor. He said there have been protests against the plan and letters were written to the Mayor expressing that road widening should be avoided in the area.

“There are many alternative roads here that can withstand the traffic,” he said. “We have submitted plans for diversion of traffic on many roads that will ease traffic in the area.”

He said he has been assured by the authorities that the project will be implemented only after exploring all the alternative options.

“The city has a large green cover that is owned by civic body, forest and defence department. We need to protect the green cover for the future generation,” Pawar said after inaugurating ‘Smritivan’ of civic body in forest land on Taljai Hill.

He said the development plan of the 23 merged villages has been stuck up with the state government due to objections of land owners to declare the hills as biodiversity park.

“The chief minister has recently discussed the issue and come out with a solution so that the development plan is approved,” Pawar said without making any comments on his stand on the proposed reservation on hill top and hill slope issue.

He, however, urged the civic body to help forest department to construct a concrete wall on the boundary of Taljai Hill. “The construction of concrete wall is a good solution to protect the forest from encroachment and fire,” Pawar said.

The issue of reserving the hill top and slope as biodiversity park (BDP) was held up in controversy after political parties, except Congress, reached a consensus on allowing limited development of four per cent on the land so that it can be protected from encroachment. On the other hand, the environmentalists have registered their protest on any such move that would have adverse impact on the green cover of the city.