Times of India: Mumbai: Monday, January 22, 2018.
Even before
the first month of 2018 has ended, 806 trees in the city are on the block - to
be cut or transplanted.
Most trees
identified for cutting or transplantation are for various infrastructure
projects Metro, road and nullahwidening as also for obstruction of traffic,
slum rehabilitation and construction projects.
Municipal
commissioner Ajoy Mehta said the debate is infrastructure versus tree cover.
"We in the BMC are tree lovers and make every effort to save a tree. But
we need infrastructure too and while I personally do not want any tree to be
cut, as a bureaucrat I have to follow policy."
He said that
the BMC has been planting 19,000 trees a year and citizens too have been
planting as many trees.
Activist Zoru
Bhathena, who has been filing objections for every notice of tree-cutting
issued by the BMC, said that if there is no objection, a tree is cut without
asking any questions. "There have been times when a tree does not obstruct
anything but has been marked for cutting," he said, adding that survival
rate of transplanted trees is abysmal.
Bhathena said
that owing to a high court stay on new constructions, currently there are very
few tree-cutting proposals for real estate. "There will be a flood of
applications once the stay is lifted," he said. Bhathena also said that so
far, 206 new trees have been added to a list of trees to be cut along the Metro
III route.
Kamlesh Shah,
a former tree authority member, said that the body has been functioning without
an expert member for nearly a year. Mehta said it has sent the proposal to the
tree panel which is still to take a decision.
Tree lovers
said that if citizens do not object, a tree could be cut for no reason.
A resident of
Bimbisar Nagar, Goregaon, said trees outside the housing society were marked
for cutting. "I happened to see all notices read the same obstructing
entrance to a particular building. None of the trees were in front of any gate.
I made enquiries with the tree authority and was informed that the federation
of societies had sought cutting of the trees. After our society objected, the
BMC did not proceed," he said.
Uma Modi, an
Andheri (east) resident, has been fighting to save old trees in Nagardas lane.
Traffic obstruction by hawkers is the reason cited for cutting of trees.
"The BMC has cut full-grown trees and has replaced them with palms. Our
query under the RTI Act revealed that a single letter copied several times was
used as an excuse by the K-East ward to cut trees," she said.
Regarding
cutting of trees on a large scale, civic chief Ajoy Mehta said: "In 2008
there were 19.17 lakh trees and in 2017 there are 27.25 lakh trees in the city.
There has been an 8.75 lakh increase in tree cover. The census is
authentic...," he said, adding there is now a lot of consciousness about
trees.
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