Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Sep 10: Heart-rending scenes of young birds lying dead mark the stretch of national highway between Kundapur town and Honnavar, especially near Sangam.

Even as the widening work on national highway between the town and Suratkal is progressing at a snail's pace, the work of widening the stretch of national highway between the town and Honnavar has been initiated. But young crane chicks are doomed to death as trees are being cut down in an unscientific manner to pave way for road widening work.

It is observed that the contractors entrusted with the task of felling of trees have not been heeding to requests put forth by locals to save these birds.

The work of removing the trees, several of which were standing by the side of the highway since hundreds of years, has begun. Machines are being used to cut down trees on a large scale. But because of haphazard manner in which the operation has been undertaken, hundreds of crane chicks and young sea crows have lost their lives. Hundreds of more young birds have become shelter-less.

Over the last many years, these cranes and sea crows have set up their nests in these trees during the month of May every year, and then give birth to young ones. By the end of September, these young birds fly away after their wings muster enough strength. As these trees were cut down without any advance information, many young birds were destined to die, while others have been rendered homeless. The locals claim that the young birds would have survived if the operation to cut trees had been postponed by two weeks.

When one of the contractors, Uday Shetty, was contacted, he claimed that they have been given deadline for the felling of trees and that it is beyond the control of the contractors to postpone the operation. He said the concerned need to take up the issue with National Highways Authority of India officials.

There are no two opinions on the need to cut down trees for achieving overall development of an area. At the same time, the concerned should understand that the highway does not become widened the moment trees are removed. A wait of two weeks would in no way have affected the road widening work which takes years to materialize, opined a local environmentalist, Vittal Kanchan.