Alert residents of Pattandur Agrahara village in the Kadugodi ward of Whitefield seems to have prevented encroachment of more than 40 acres of lake bed and public land after they raised the alarm earlier this week. Hundreds of trees on the Pattandur Agrahara Lake bed and the adjoining village land were illegally chopped off by around 30 strongmen at the behest of some realtors.

The residents, who had gone to inquire about the indiscriminate tree felling, were threatened with violence. They immediately alerted the police and the tree felling was stopped. However, to the surprise of the residents, the tree felling continued the next morning and a wall was built overnight along the Munneswara Temple Road from Jatti Dwarkamai Villas to AbhaydhamaHuman Development Centre campus, blocking the path to the ancient Muneshwara temple. The access to the temple now has been limited to a small gate on the wall.

When approaching the police failed to yield any results, the upset villagers approached Corporator Muniswamy on Saturday. After Muniswamy assured that the issue will be sorted, forest department and officials from the BBMP tree cell visited the spot.

Sandeep Anirudhan, a civic activist, said, “Some sites of the land have been encroached upon. There is a team of police present at these sites around the clock. One land has an owner, while another land has two owners, but they could be benami also.”  

A meeting with the villagers and the corporator took place on Sunday morning and it was decided Mahadevapura MLA Arvind Limbavali will hold a meeting to resolve the differences.

Strangely, jurisdictional Whitefield Police Station tried to downplay the incident, claiming that they did not receive any complaint about any altercation, albeit DCP Whitefield Abdul Ahad acknowledging the incident. Ahad had said, “There was some dispute, but the local police station is consulting with the tehsildar to resolve the problem.”