Protecting the city

Turahalli forest, the focus of the city’s green activists, has been spared the fate of a tree park, thanks to the support ‘Save Turahalli’ movement gathered over a fortnight demanding that it be kept in its pristine natural form. But the threat still looms as it is part of the Vision 2022 Programme document announced by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa. An on-the-spot announcement by Forest Minister Arvind Limbavali after inspection, in response to people’s resistance, has for the time being halted the work and bulldozers have been withdrawn. Few perhaps know that Turahalli forest itself came up as a people’s movement. Decades ago it was mere scrubland with a few rocky outcrops facing the harsh sun in summers and rains thereafter. It was the residents of the area who began to plant saplings, took meticulous care of them and turned the area green and saw to it that nothing disturbed the serenity and tranquility of the place. It was at their behest that the Forest Department surveyed the area later and designated it as an urban forest and put up a board declaring it a ‘mini-forest’.