HYDERABAD: The city is all set to lose another 1,110 trees to the Outer Ring Road (ORR) project. In a meeting held last week the tree protection committee, terming the move as "necessary", gave the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) the go-ahead to fell these trees, most of which are four-five years old. Axing the green cover will pave the way for HMDA to take up road-widening work on the 1.3 km-long Hyderabad-Medak-Bodhan highway that will now have six lanes as against the existing two. Earlier, as per government records, nearly 5,000 trees have been felled across Hyderabad's outskirts to facilitate the same project.

While municipal authorities had promised to take up compensatory plantation drives to make up for this huge loss of trees, nothing has been done so far. Even this time, HMDA has assured to plant as many as three saplings for every tree felled. The trees set to face the axe soon essentially comprise peltophorans, gulmohar and sishu.

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