Mangaluru (The Hindu): Amid opposition by activists, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will lay the foundation stone for a government offices complex at Padil during his visit to the city on Thursday. It is estimated to cost Rs. 41 crore.

According to the activists, the government has proposed to fell 478 trees on 5.89-acre land for the construction of the complex and the land housed birds and many species of animals. The government had handed over the land allotted to the Karnataka State Forest Industries’ Corporation to the Revenue Department for constructing the building.

The decision of the government to build the complex was challenged before the Karnataka High Court through a public interest litigation petition and later before the Chennai Bench of the National Green Tribunal.

The court rejected the petition saying that construction was proposed on government land for a public purpose and also held that the government did not exceed its jurisdiction illegally in granting the permission. The tribunal said that trees could be felled only after taking requisite permission from the competent authority. Advocate-activist Suma R. Nayak and activists Daniel Tauro and Shawn F. Fernandes made efforts to save the large and probably the last lung space of the city from destruction by approaching the court and tribunal. A.B. Ibrahim, Deputy Commissioner, told The Hindu that there was no stay from any court to fell the trees. The tribunal has directed the officials to fell the trees as per law. Action had been initiated as per the direction. The Regional Commissioner, Mysuru, has written to the government to this effect.

Meanwhile, Laboratory of Applied Biology, St. Aloysius College, in its May 21, 2015 report on the bio-diversity on the land in question said that “the 478 trees are naturally growing, which have great environmental significance as they form an ecological niche of representative trees of the area. Perched on these trees are lianas – creepers with a stems having a girth of a man’s arm. It must have taken centuries for them to reach this size. The trees provided a living space for epiphytes like ferns and orchids characteristic of the flora of the region…”

Calling it a “quasi bio-diversity park”, the report said that it provided food and shelter to a number of endangered wild species of animals, birds and insects.

“The project owners may plant saplings. But it will not bring back the original tree cover which was there for ages and which forms the last representatives of the original flora of Mangaluru. The project will do irreparable damage to a rare ancient patch of the representative flora of the area,”

Leo D’Souza,Director of Research, Laboratory of Applied Biology, St. Aloysius College