The grand old trees are situated in the police academy campus in Viyyur situated in the outskirts of Thrissur town. Apart from the regular rain trees, there are fruit-bearing ones like mango and jackfruit and even very old teakwood varieties that provide a green canopy to the sprawling 348 acres campus. Environmentalists point out that the government could have found many alternative sites and vacant areas in the outskirts for conducting this event.

"I had strongly objected to this proposal when it came in the agenda of the tree committee. The trees are not only home to hundreds of birds but even squirrels and sparrows that are slowly disappearing from the cityscape," said Thrissur mayor Rajan Pallan, who is a member of the district tree committee.

Greens point out that this decision comes at a time at a time when Thrissur town is rapidly losing its green cover, paving the way for highrise buildings and road expansion projects ensuing massive felling of trees.

"The district administration is already in the dock for allowing various devaswom boards to ill-treat temple elephants during festival season. Instead of preserving the green zones, the government is hell-bent on cutting trees. These trees play a pivotal role in reducing air pollution and even brings down the scorching temperature during summer," said V K Venkitachalam, secretary of heritage animal task force.

The Kerala police academy that began functioning a decade ago imparts overall planning and supervision of training activities of Kerala Police. The academy has full-term basic courses for sub-inspectors, constables, women constables, drivers and telecommunication wing constables.

Spread over an area of 348 acres, the academy was constructed at a cost of Rs 22 crore and has an indoor training facility, a 7.5 acre main parade ground and a 3.5 acre sports complex ground. The academy has also got a 300-yard firing range, a motor training school and police dog training centre.

"If they bent on cutting the trees, the government can easily replant the trees within the academy premises. We have serious doubts that there may be other long-term real estate intention for cutting down the trees and this sporting event is just a pretext for that," Pallan said.

Thiruvananthapuram: Trap shooting is an international sporting event where participants shoot down wooden pigeons mid- flight. It is ironical that the state government has decided to decimate the homes of hundreds of common birds by giving permission to cut 55 majestic trees for the trap shooting event in the national games to be held in Thrissur.

The grand old trees are situated in the police academy campus in Viyyoor situated in the outskirts of Thrissur town. Apart from the regular rain trees there are fruit bearing trees like mango and jackfruit trees and even very old teakwood trees that provides a green canopy to the sprawling 348 acres campus.

Environmentalists point out that the government could have found many alternative sites and vacant areas in the outskirts for conducting this event .

"I had strongly objected to this proposal when it came in the agenda of the tree committee. The trees are not only home to hundreds of common birds but even squirrels and sparrows which are slowly disappearing from the cityscape,'' Thrissur mayor Rajan Pallan who is also a member of the district tree committee said.

Greens point out that this decision comes at a time at a time when Thrissur town is rapidly losing its green cover, paving way to high rise buildings and road expansion projects ensuing massive felling of trees.

"The district administration is already in docks for allowing various Devasom boards to ill treat temple elephants during festival season. Instead of preserving the green zones within the city limits, the government is bent on cutting trees. These trees play a pivotal role to reduces air pollution and even brings down the scorching temperature especially during the summer,''V K Venkitachalam, secretary of heritage animal task force said.

The Kerala police academy that began functioning a decade back imparts overall planning and supervision of training activities of Kerala Police.

The academy has full-term basic courses for sub-inspectors, constables, women constables, drivers and telecommunication wing constables.

Spread over an area of 348 acres, the academy was constructed at a cost of Rs 22 crore and has an indoor training facility, a 7.5 acre main parade ground and a 3.5 acre sports complex ground.

The academy has also got 300 yards firing range, a motor training school and police dog training center.

"If they bent on cutting the trees, the government can easily replant the trees within the academy premises. We have serious doubts that there may be other long term real estate intention for cutting down the trees and this sporting event is just a pretext for that,'' Pallan said.