A top white-collar one serving in a district known for an elephant-shaped rock is planning to cut down a centuries-old landmark banian tree towering over a sensitive environment saying that snakes have made it their home and these snakes have a become a threat to him and his family as they are often seen slithering around his official residence.

The historic banian tree is located nowhere near the official residence of the white-collar high-up and about 10 predecessors of his who occupied this residence had never complained about the threat from snakes, they say.

Both environmentalists and the residents in the area have protested the move to fell the banian tree, but the high-up does not seem to have changed his mind about it, they say.