The Karkala taluk in Karnataka environmentalists association has protested in strong terms the move of the local panchayat chief to pressurize the departmental officers to cut down the 30 trees on both sides of the road in the town claiming that they are dangerous to traffic. Contending that the trees pose no threat whatsoever to the traffic, or to the auto rickshaw drivers or to the merchants, the committee holds that the move to fell these trees is promoted by the desire to loot public money and to settle an old score in relation to the petty merchants of the locality.