A Bengaluru ad agency allegedly felled and poisoned 27 trees in order to make an iPhone hoarding visible to passersby. The hoarding shows a New York sunset captured by an iPhone 7 camera.
To make it more noticeable, Nile ad agency poisoned 17 trees and chopped down 13, according to a News Minute report. The hoarding is located inside the private grounds of the Archbishop House on the Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru, between Marathahalli and Chinnappannahalli.
"This is an illegal hoarding and an unauthorised advertising company named Nile Enterprises Pvt Ltd located in Frazer Town has put up the hoarding. The ad agency and the owners of the Archbishop House had made an agreement for putting up the hoarding," Thimmappa, BBMP's (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike) Assistant Conservator of Forests, Mahadevapura zone told TNM.
When HuffPost India contacted Apple, the company said that it is investigating the matter.
The TNM report says that BBMP received a tip-off about the destruction of the trees from environmental activist Vijay Nishanth on 2 March. The forest cell has sent a notice to both the Archbishop House and the ad agency that they have to respond to within three days.
"We have asked them about the price of the hoarding and the site rent. We are waiting for their reply. And based on that we will decide if a complaint can be filed under the Karnataka Tree Preservation Act. The joint commissioner will visit the site and assess the situation," Thimmappa told HuffPost India.
The owner of the site Syed Ghousepeer denied the allegations while talking to HuffPost India.
"We are a very reputed company and we won't ever do such action. We have already submitted the reply to the authorities. Today the BBMP officials visited the site and have cleared us of all the accusations. We will co-operate fully with the authorities to find out the culprit behind this," he said.
Last month, the Karnataka government announced that Apple will be manufacturing iPhones in the state very soon.