Refuting allegations made by a NGO, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) has stated that no trees were removed for the laying of the solar roofed cycle track. Quoting Vata Foundation, some newspapers alleged that the trees were removed for laying of the cycle track.
“The entire cycle track length (planter boxes & adjacent areas) planted with flowering and avenue trees. No trees were removed during the execution of cycling track. The allegation is false,” said the HMDA in a press release. The metropolitan body added that about 5,000 small saplings below one metre height were uprooted during the cable trench digging and they were put in the nursery polybags and transplanted in the same area.
The HMDA emphasized that allegations can’t be made based on Google images, “Google images appear differently in different seasons and time periods. Any tree to be distinguished in Google map need wide canopy, if any image seen in a Google may be anything like grass, small herbs, stones, soil mounds, canals etc. It does not mean that it is a tree,” said HMDA.
The solar roofed cycle track has been laid from TSPA to Kollur in a length of 23 kms along the service road of the ORR. The trees affected during the laying of the track were safely translocated to HMDA lands in Tellapur and Shamshabad with the requisite permissions from the Tree Protection Committee and Forest Divisional Officer.
