Due to the ongoing road-widening project at Sarjapur, residents of the area have been active in spreading awareness about the rampant felling of trees for "developmental" work.
And now, the Sarjapur Resident Welfare Association (SRWA) has started an online crowdfunding campaign to translocate three trees that fall on the stretch of the project.
Tree translocation is a process in which trees are uprooted whole instead of being cut down, and re-planted at a different location.
The three trees chosen for relocation lie on the stretch between Dommasandra Circle and the Sarjapura Circle. They include one Banyan and two Peepal trees, all of which are over 50 years old.
Speaking to The News Minute, Jagadeesh, President of SRWA, said that they were aware that a lot of trees were being cut down for the road-widening project on the Dommasandra Circle-Attibele stretch.
"We thought of relocating and replanting these trees. One tree will be relocated to an apartment colony, and two others to a lake bed," he said.
Before starting the campaign, the RWA spoke to tree translocation experts who helped them identify the trees that would survive the process.
"These three trees are on just one stretch. We have also identified another 81 trees on the Sarjapur Circle-Attibele Circle stretch of which 38 can be translocated. The experts told us that their survival rate is very high," Jagadeesh said.
While their intentions may be solid, getting funds for their initiative hasn't been an easy task.
"We spoke to the MLA and DFO and while they supported the cause, they said they could not help us financially," he said.
The campaign so far has raised over Rs 1 lakh but there's still a long way to go before they reach their goal.
"When we decided to start the campaign, our idea was to see if trees can be successfully translocated. During development work, lots of trees are cut and through tree translocation, at least the rare species of trees can be saved.