Cases of tree poisoning on the rise in city

The city’s green cover is already fighting a losing battle with urbanisation and “development”. Its new enemy now seems to be ‘vaastu’.

Urban conservationists found two trees “poisoned” by a home owner in Vijayanagar as they supposedly affected the vaastu of his house.

The two jamun trees were found with scraped trunks and a few holes. Vijay Nishanth, founder of Vrukasha.com, was in Vijayanagar for a tree census when he found these trees with exposed trunks. “As soon as I saw it, I knew someone was trying to kill them. When I asked around, I was told that a home owner who believed that the trees gave him bad vaastu was behind it,” he said.

Mr. Nishanth said the chemical substance was scraped from the trunk and has been sent to the lab for testing. “The xylem, which transports water and minerals from the roots to different parts, was exposed. I began treatment by scraping the chemical layer and washing it with water. Thereafter, I applied liquid bandage, which is a mixture of beeswax and orange oil, to prevent infection. We will keep close watch on the two trees for the next two weeks,” he said. Mr. Nishanth said that instances of trees being poisoned were increasing. “People want to cut trees for silly reasons, such as leaves falling into their compound and making space for parking… then they complain of air pollution.”

He claimed that he had personally revived around 10 trees that were poisoned in different parts of the city.

Investigation on

N.D. Sudarshan, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s Deputy Conservator of Forests, said the forest cell would investigate to establish who poisoned the trees and initiate action as per provisions of the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976.

‘People cut trees for silly reasons, such as leaves falling into their compound and to make space for parking…then they complain of air pollution’