In 2021-22, 62,000+ citizens -- all of us! -- supported this petition to save over a 1000 old and iconic banyan trees on National Highway (NH)-163 from the cutter’s axe. Since then, we have filed a case in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and are fighting the good fight at every opportunity. Spread the word so that more people join the cause and help us save these magnificent trees.
We now know that the NHAI has awarded the contract to expand the highway. They have filed an affidavit with the NGT that “they will minimise damage to trees for four-laning the road”, and that translocation would be done wherever possible on the 46 km stretch.
We have already stated that translocation of these iconic banyans is not an option and earlier attempts on this very road have been dismal. Translocation would also destroy all the biodiversity these keystone trees sustain.
Geo-tagging the Banyans
In June-July 2022, groups of volunteers worked over several days to geotag and document the 914 banyans on this stretch. We now have precise data for every banyan, including location (latitude/longitude), health of the tree (including human damage) and a minimum of two photographs each. All this data is now on public domain.
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/263e1beb735c4402a92b00f1f1c256c0
Let’s act!
Join us again to reiterate our demand that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, and NHAI:
1. Replan the project to save, in toto, the best stretches with large, mature banyans. The trees can be retained as medians or on the verges with road expansions including them in their design.
2. Declare the stretch of the highway till Vikarabad, which includes the reserve forests/scrub habitats at Mudimyal and Kandlapally abutting NH-163, as the Telangana Biodiversity Heritage Road.
3. Establish this pioneering eco-tourism project to enshrine Telangana’s green heritage and encourage visits by citizens.
The Banyans of Chevella may be one of the last stretches of road-lining banyans to survive intact in Telangana. Since this is an old highway, the Banyans can be dated to the last Nizam’s policy of planting shade-bearing trees alongside major roads. Keeping the Banyans intact would honour this past – Hyderabad’s heritage - even as we look forward to sustainable futures.
Mudimyal and Kandlapally are two of the few remaining grassland/scrub habitats on NH-163. They play host to many grassland specialist animals, notably the migrating Harriers that winter here and the now rare Tawny Eagles that nest here (listed as ‘Vulnerable’ in the IUCN Red List). Together with the Banyans, they can make a ‘heritage road’ that represents an alternative, more sustainable future that we can bequeath our children. Heritage Roads are ideally preserved intact on cultural, aesthetic, historical, and ecological grounds, and will acquire their own unique touristic and heritage value if properly protected and developed.
The banyans, even today, are bursting with birdsong, attracting hundreds of bees, butterflies and wasps; squirrels springing up their aerial roots; hornbills, koels, crows, barbets and mynahs trilling in their canopies. These tree-tops are home to raptors like buzzards and spotted eagles. They are keystone species, entire ecosystems in themselves. Save them and you save multitudes.
If the banyans go, entire ecosystems die, heritage disappears, and local economies collapse.
Let us work together to save the Chevella Banyans.
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