The showdown between the civil society and BBMP that started on Thursday midnight continued on Friday, with the palike ignoring protests and axing 17 of the 19 trees marked for felling to widen Sankey Road.

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On Thursday between 10 pm and 11 pm, a group of workers arrived armed with equipment to fell the trees. Activists who were keeping vigil at the site shooed them away. The threat to the trees resurfaced around 1.20 am when the men began to axe the trees.

“They started cutting the trees at 1.20am. We were outnumbered by the police. Two of us almost got arrested. Five trees were felled before day break,” said Sumanth Madhav, one of the 15 people who kept the night vigil.

Madhav said he felt reassured at first to see the policemen. “But, we were shocked to see that they were here only to carry out the BBMP’s directions,” he said.

Protesters asked the BBMP official to show the permission letter to fell the trees. “The permission was given only to trim trees. When we questioned him on this, the official left,” Madhav said.

The agitation intensified on Friday morning with the arrival of the tree chopping crew. When activists surrounded a giant tree, shouting slogans, the police tried to coax them to leave.

When they did not yield they were attacked. “They were hit with lathis, dragged on the uneven surface that had glass shards, and sharp stones. They were put into the police jeep,” a witness recollected.  Most of those taken away were girl students.

Vinay Sreenivasa and four other men were arrested on charges of assaulting public servants discharging their duty (Sec 353 of IPC) and kept in the Vyalikaval police station.   Eleven persons, including Suresh Heblikar and Meenakshi Bharat, were taken into preventive custody by the High Grounds police.

While High Grounds police immediately released the eleven members, Vyalikaval police released the five members later in the evening after dropping charges.

Meanwhile, felling of two more trees continued as the men chopped its branches. A group of policemen - both traffic and law and order - kept the crowd at bay. A few metres away, citizens held a “funeral,” holding branches and banners. “We are mourning the loss. What is happening is inhuman. This also a form of corruption,” said Shobha Kini, a resident of Bannerghatta Road.

Citizens pleaded with the men to stop work saying that a stay order had been issued. “The police were pushing and shoving people, threatening to arrest them. When we requested them to stop the felling, they asked us to produce a copy of the stay order. Isn’t it the duty of the BBMP officials to have it? Aren’t the two departments supposed to co-ordinate?” said Suresh Kumar, a protestor. The tree felling was halted around 6 pm.