The Greater Bengaluru Authority has cleared the felling of 267 trees and the relocation of 18 others for the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board’s proposed 100 MLD sewage treatment plant at Doddabele village near Kengeri, despite 28 objections from citizens.
The approval follows an assessment of 355 trees located within the BWSSB premises and the project area. In a memorandum issued recently, the authority said 70 trees could remain because they stood outside the construction zone. The Tree Expert Committee recommended that 18 trees be translocated and that the remaining 267 be removed.
The trees affected include sapota, coconut, rain tree, neem and other species. According to the memorandum, several of them stand in areas earmarked for the sewage treatment plant’s primary and secondary clarifiers, oxidation tanks, sludge-processing facilities, channels and related infrastructure.
The Doddabele plant is part of BWSSB’s plan to expand sewage treatment capacity in the Vrushabhavathi Valley. The department has said Bengaluru’s growing population will increase sewage generation and that existing and planned treatment capacity will not be sufficient to meet future requirements. Additional plants have also been proposed at Mailasandra and Doddabele.
The Tree Expert Committee conducted field inspections in February and assessed the trees based on their location, condition, species and the possibility of retaining them without affecting construction. The committee said 70 trees could be retained at their existing locations. It found that only 18 trees were suitable for translocation, while the others could neither be retained nor moved under the project plan.
The authority’s approval includes conditions for the tree work. The 18 trees approved for translocation must be moved to a designated location within the BWSSB premises through prescribed procedures and under the supervision of forest officials. BWSSB must also plant 10 saplings for every tree felled or translocated and maintain them for at least three years. Regular monitoring and documentation have been made mandatory.
The public notice proposing action against all 355 trees attracted 28 objections. Residents and citizens asked authorities to examine alternative sites, redesign the project, translocate mature trees and undertake compensatory afforestation. Authorities responded that alternatives had been examined before the site was finalised and that the treatment plant was necessary to meet sewage-processing requirements and reduce pollution in the Vrushabhavathi river ecosystem.
The decision highlights the competing infrastructure pressures in Bengaluru’s expanding western fringe: the need to add sewage treatment capacity while retaining mature vegetation on public project sites. A Bengaluru-based tree activist told Bangalore Mirror that citizens’ objections to development projects were routinely met with standard responses and called for a threshold number of objections to trigger public consultations beyond the Tree Expert Committee’s inspection and order.
Under the memorandum, the next steps are the supervised translocation of the 18 identified trees, felling of the approved trees and planting and maintenance of compensatory saplings, with monitoring and documentation required during the three-year maintenance period.
