DHARWAD: The city has lost hundreds of trees owing to the BRTS project between Hubballi and Dharwad . Learning a lesson from it, some residents have come together to increase the green cover from Jayanagar last stop to Basavanagar Circle on Haliyal Road in Dharwad.The PWD has started constructing a 2-km cement road from Jayanagar to Basavanagar cross and axed about 7-8 trees to widen the road. To compensate it, residents under the banner of Hubballi-Dharwad Nagarika Parisara Samiti in association with Diksha, an NGO, have started planting trees along the newly constructed cement road.Samiti president Shankar Kumbi told TOI that many important trees were removed and axed in the twin cities under the guise of development, destroying the green belt. “Hundreds of trees were felled while implementing BRTS and no efforts have been made to grow trees between the twin cities. We had taken an initiative to plant trees along BRTS a few months back and also planted hundreds of trees. But to our shock, all those trees were stolen due to the absence of security guards,” he said.“Now, we are focusing on developing greenery by carrying out a plantation drives where trees have been axed for widening roads and other works. As a first step towards our commitment to develop greenery, we have started planting trees along the cement road,” said Kumbi.“We have placed tree guards around the saplings. We have already planted more than 45 saplings including akash mallige, neem, magani, mahogany, varagi and other species of trees till now along half a km of this road. The forest department is also coordinating with us in this effort,” he added.

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