Save green cover of Tirumala

It's quite disturbing tidings that a large number of construction-works are coming up in the forest area between Alipiri and SV Park zone on the slopes of Tirumala hills.( "Growing construction activity in forest are sounds alarm bell",THI, Nov 13). The attempts to  cut down thousands  of trees, and  destroy forests for the  construction-works in Tirumala and to urbanise the  whole  area certainly  wreck the rich wealth of fauna and flora besides robbing Tirumala of  its marvellous, scenic beauty and serenity. Is too much urbanization followed by rapid  industrialisation, transforming  our forest and hill-areas into concrete jungles at the cost of environment  development?

Nature   nurtures and sustains life. Trees are the life-line of humans. If  we go on cutting  down trees and destroying forests and hills, the dark time is  not far  off  to see the whole green and hilly areas transformed into vast deserts with concrete jungles, resulting in ecological degradation and spelling out ecological disasters and  humans under the  perennial  threat of nature's wrath. Let  our virgin forests and  majestic hills of Tirumala  with their wonderful ecosystem and rich biodiversity and  its serene beauty remain   untouched  by the spectre  of urbanisation and industrialisation for the so-called modern  development.   

"A blessing rests on the house where falls the shadow of a tree". That's how Ruskin Bond, the eminent Indian-English fiction-writer, who is hailed as the champion  of ecosystem, voices in one of  his short-stories and enlightens the  readers about the  benefits of trees apart from  the hazards of urbanization to  the environment. So the more trees we  have, the more blessings descend over us.