Belthangady: As manya as 50 rubber trees were chopped to make a new public road at Kailaje in Kanyadi village limits in a private land belonging to Kunyanna Gowda on Friday, August 12.

The four-year-old trees were razed to ground in no time by 25 people under the supervision of revenue officials. The forest department had given clearance to the road as a part of it lies in their purview. A new road is created to connect Kailaje village to Shanthinagar via Indabettu in Nada GP limits. The workers sought documents to carry out the works, but were forced to follow orders by revenue officials in police presence. The owner of the private land Kunyanna Gowda does not know the reason behind creating the new road despite the existing gram panchayat road. He felt that there was political pressure from some quarters which led to chopping the rubbers trees, altogether 50 in number.

The surprising fact according to him is that the concerned governments departments which remained quiet till the plants grew acted in haste to raze the trees using heavy earth moving machinery.

It is learnt, that the locals have funded the road works and earlier when the land owner resisted, his family received threat calls. The new stretch of road was created in days’ time which caught everyone by surprise!