Bengaluru: A Friday morning that should have buzzed with the rustle of silk sarees and the chatter of buyers, Devanga Market— the city’s wholesale textile hub — fell eerily silent. Reason: Walls of debris dumped by trucks overnight blocked both entrances, trapping over 60 shops between the mounds and costing heavy financial losses to the traders.The market, situated on Sri Devaraj Urs Road (formerly Jumma Masjid Road) near Avenue Road, has been an integral part of the city’s traditional textile trade since 1961.Known for its wholesale saree business, the market is housed in a G+2 commercial building owned by the Devanga Sangha, an association of trustees. Over the years, the tenants, many of them legacy shopkeepers, maintained their businesses under registered rental agreements.According to the tenants, a few trucks arrived around 4:30am and dumped mounds of construction debris at both the front and back gates of the market, without warning or notice. The tenants who saw pictures of the same shared in WhatsApp groups, rushed to the market only to see the heaps of debris blocking their path.The debris wasn’t just an inconvenience. It posed a real threat. “Electric panels were partially buried. One short circuit has already occurred. This is a market full of fabric—if there’s a fire, we could lose everything,” said a tenant.Left clueless about who dumped the debris and why, the tenants received no explanation despite attempts to contact members of the Sangha. Multiple calls went unanswered. They visited the Halasur Gate police station to complain, but were told the matter would be addressed Monday. “But how do we wait for three more days with our shops shut? Our businesses don’t run on weekends unlike big malls. A single day like this crushes us,” added Lav Shishodiya, owner of Kumar Silk Sarees, who stared at a loss of around Rs 20 lakh in business Friday.For many tenants, this is more than just business. It’s survival. Sanjay Marlecha, who owns an interior design shop, said: “I had a client visiting me today but I had to cancel the appointment because of this. I can’t call my client and give out such a shabby image. We had TDS filings, GST deadlines, customer deliveries, and banking to complete, but everything halted. Even the postman couldn’t enter to deliver important parcels. We’re following every agreement, paying our dues, and this is what we get? And none in the Sangha is even listening to our concerns.”Bhaskar, a member of the Sangha, responding to the situation, said: “There was some miscommunication. We asked to dump jelly stones and sand for renovation work, but the guy responsible dumped debris. I was busy today. I will go and get the debris cleared.”Kush S, a silk saree shop owner, said, “We came in at our usual time around 9-9.30am and saw both the front and back passage areas completely blocked with heaps of debris. Today was especially important for me because I had a client coming from Hassan — I’d been following up for a week, and we finalised the meeting. I was expecting a business worth Rs 4-5 lakh just from him, but it couldn’t happen. This is clearly an act of harassment. No notice, no discussion, nothing.”