Banyans of Chevella in Telangana live for another day Premium

Citizens' movements in Telangana have had success in protecting trees & environment, such as Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park & Khajaguda. A petition to protect Chevella Banyans led to NGT ordering an EIA, though the fate of the trees is uncertain.

The 474-km road twists, winds, and curls along as the rubber burns the asphalt. Luxury cars swerve to a side when another vehicle manifests at an unexpected curve on the two-lane route which is — hard to believe — a national highway (NH).

Ficus, mostly banyan (Ficus Benghalensis) and cluster fig (Ficus Racemosa) of all sizes and shapes stand on both sides of the NH-163 between Moinabad of Rangareddy district and Manneguda of Vikarabad district, via Chevella, in Telangana.

The road leads to the village Ravulapally in Ranga Reddy district on one side and to Bhoopalapatnam road in Chhattisgarh on the other.

Many of the trees are stunted owing in part to decades of exposure to traffic, pollution, and other environmental disturbances. A few are fully developed, their prop roots forming miniature ecosystems.

In 2017, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) decided to expand the road. Over 900 of these trees, famously known as the Chevella banyans were to be cut. Then a group of tree lovers from Hyderabad got involved leading to the National Green Tribunal’s directions to the NHAI in November this year to commission an environmental impact assessment (EIA).

The NHAI is not statutorily obligated to commission the study for road expansion projects, unless the road length is more than 99 kilometres.

“To circumvent the provision in case of major expansion, the Central government agency has devised a way to segment the project into pieces less than 100 km, and award the contracts phase-wise,” says Pranay Juvvadi, an ecologist and independent researcher, who is also a petitioner to the NGT.