SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024
Eliza Trinidade e Sousa Siolim
The recent cutting down of age-old heritage trees in Siolim by a politician raised a lot of hue and cry from concerned citizens. The trees were completely rooted out not just cut, ostensibly on the pretext of road widening.
Not only trees were rooted out but compound walls were demolished, chapel demolished, temple walls and what not. All that came on the way was just bulldozed, why? Because people were told that Siolim road is getting chock-o-block and a lot of traffic congestion so in order to ease this traffic congestion, the road needs to be widened.
That the road was not being widened officially and trees were mercilessly cut is altogether a secondary issue because people were led to believe that if they wanted good wide roads and ambulances to move swiftly then they should sacrifice the trees as trees and wide roads cannot co-exist and meekly Siolkars surrendered without uttering a word or resisting this move. It was only when some nature lovers filed a PIL that the work stopped.
However surprisingly instead of the butchered trees paving the way for road widening it has now come to light that they have paved the way for something else, and that is illegal business establishments that have overnight cropped up in setback areas with the blessings of the same tree destroyers. One fails to understand as to who clears permissions to such structures by the roadside at the cost of nature.
It is quite astonishing that the road widening issue has taken the backseat now and the cleared roadside area has now become the hotspot for business establishments. It is completely meaningless and senseless that when age-old trees have been butchered some structures continue to stand tall and flourish, now don't these structures contribute to traffic jams? So when trees are destroyed what is the rationale that these structures continue to stand?
