Bengaluru: Threat to All Saints Church’s green cover draws anger and sadness of activists
With green cover fast depleting for Metro work, citizens often find themselves on the street demanding that trees be left alone. At such a time, the recent victim to Metro work is the All Saints Church whose green cover may soon be gone forever to make way for the underground Gottigere-Nagavara Metro line.
FollowBengaluru: All Saints Church which is about to celebrate it’s 150 years may lose its canopy, all thanks to the underground section of the Gottigere-Nagavara Metro line.
It is believed that as many as 186 trees on the premises of the Church may have to be felled for the Metro work.
Green activists state that most of the trees that may be felled are well over 100 years old. They also said that the city has already lost a lot of greenery because of the Metro work.
Reverend Prem Mitra, who is also an environmentalist spoke to Asianet News and said, “The church is very beautiful and peaceful, but if the Metro construction begins, then it will be noisy… I have planted a few trees there myself and it would be sad to see it go.”
Rev Mitra expressed his disappointment over the fact that the Metro cannot be used by one and all, yet construction for the same will go on.
Speaking about the lush green cover within the campus of All Saints Church, he said, “It is not just the trees, it is also the birds and other flora and fauna that will be affected by this.
CItizens question how such huge number of trees can be felled all at once.
Wildlife Activist, Joseph Hoover said, “There is already rampant water scarcity, the Summers in Bengaluru are getting hotter. We can’t afford to lose these many trees.”
Stating that there was a barren land just 100 metres away from the proposed All Saints church, Hoover said that an appeal has been made to the managing director of the BMRCL to use that plot instead of felling all the trees.
An online petition started by Chris HD states that All Saints Church compound hosts a school for differently abled children and cannot be used as a dump yard to store raw materials for the Metro construction.
The petition also states that trees like sandalwood, banyan, mango and bamboo are also present on campus alongside rare species of flora and fauna.
Apart from this, the campus also hosts an old age home. Senior citizens use the lush green spaces for their daily walks.
The church is not the only thing that will bear the brunt of such development. Bengaluru’s iconic and one of the oldest bakeries, Fatima bakery will also shut down.
Hotel Tom’s, another famous eatery, is also one that may soon shut down owing to the rampant Metro construction
