Environmental experts, naturalists and citizens concerned by the tree felling in the proximity of the KBR National Park have addressed an open letter to the Commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, R.V. Karnan, urging him to rethink the flyovers and underpasses proposed around the park.

The letter with 33 signatories led by Public Policy expert Narasimha Reddy Donthi, requested the GHMC to commission and make public, a thorough, independent, and multi-disciplinary area study before proceeding further with the proposed project.

The justification in the name of prevention of carbon emissions through elimination of engine idling at the intersection outweighing the carbon sequestration services of the removed trees is dangerously reductive, as it isolates one variable in an extraordinarily complex ecological and urban system and uses it to justify an irreversible decision, the letter said.

Trees, particularly the mature canopy associated with KBR Park, are not single-purpose carbon absorption units. They are living, multi-functional infrastructure that simultaneously regulate urban temperatures and counter the heat island effect, manage storm water and reduce flood risk, support biodiversity corridors for birds, insects, reptiles, and native flora, provide measurable public health and psychological wellbeing benefits to surrounding communities; and sequester carbon continuously, over decades, without consuming energy or resources. No flyover delivers any of these services.

Instead, the emission savings projected from the elimination of idling at one intersection must be weighed against the well-documented phenomenon of induced demand. Urban transport research consistently demonstrates that new road capacity attracts additional vehicle trips that would not otherwise have occurred.

The traffic that a flyover is designed to accommodate today will be exceeded within a few years of its opening, as more residents choose private vehicle travel on that stretch.