Saalumarada Thimakka convinces HDK to not cut trees for road widening

Padma Shri awardee Saalumarada Thimakka met Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara on Monday to press them for calling off the Bagepalli-Halaguru road widening project, a media house reported.

Thimakka had shot to fame for planting and tending to 385 banyan trees along a four-kilometre highway stretch between Kudur and Hudikal in Ramanagara district on the same road in the 1960s.

“I will not allow the trees I have planted to be chopped. I will not allow the government to carry out this project,” the environmentalist was quoted as saying.

Following the meeting, the chief minister’s office said he had asked concerned officials to come up with an alternative to the project by minimising tree felling.

In a statement, the Deputy CM said, “It is true that she has protected these trees as her own children. It is our responsibility to protect these trees. We will try and come up with an alternate alignment for road expansion so that the trees which she planted are not harmed.”

“Saalumarada” means rows of trees in Kannada. She had taken to planting trees after she and her husband failed to conceive after years of marriage.