*January 2023 Update*
In 2021-22, 63,000+ citizens - all of us! - supported this petition to save nearly 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.
The campaign is facing continued challenges. Road widening has begun for NH-163 near Himayatnagar village with a few buildings already demolished. Even as the authorities had offered assurances that they would do their best to save the trees, it appears that more than 700 of the 914 banyans will be removed from the Chevella-Vikarabad stretch.
It is alarming that a large number of trees – small, big, huge and iconic – have been marked for translocation. We have been reiterating that translocating equals death for most of these trees.
In the meantime, ‘Desham kosam’ Prakash, a member of Nature Lovers of Hyderabad, from Mendhini Social Service Society, Warangal, completed a 200-km padayatra, in support of the campaign to save the banyans of Chevella. He started from Hanamkonda on 2 January 2023, and completed the padayatra on 8 January at Manneguda. He was joined by several enthusiastic nature lovers all along the way. We are very thankful to Prakash for his support. He earlier undertook padayatras for other environmental causes in Telangana, including promoting the use of clay Ganeshas, calling for the ban of plastic during the Medaram jatra and in support of a green tax at the Eturu Nagaram forest corridor. He brought these issues to the notice of the officials through his padayatras and hopes that he will succeed this time too.
Let’s act now!
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-giving trees along 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 continue to work together to save the Chevella Banyans.
Indian Express: https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/telangana/2021/sep/25/huge-fillip-centre-sanctions-rs-900-cr-for-nh-163-expansion-2363505.html
Times of India: