Hammering the death nail into trees……..Ashutosh Shukla
At least 14 trees were either cut or uprooted in the past three days, allegedly to give a clear view of hoardings in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s D ward area of Tardeo.
At one place of the civic ward, a fully-grown Cyca Revoluta tree which costs Rs25,000, was felled. The tree takes takes around seven to eight years to grow to its full height of over 10ft. The other trees felled cost Rs1,000 each.
The cutting that took place on Tuesday morning was on a green patch that has been beautified jointly by the local MLA and the corporator of the area. The patch is at the corner of the Cross Road Mall. The person who was cutting the tree was caught by locals only after he was through with his job.
Tree cutting is illegal and punishable with imprisonment if it can be proved under The Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Preservation of Trees Act, 1975.
“My people caught this person at 5.30 am. We suspect that he did this for the hoarding as its view was blocked by the tree,” said Arvind Bane, local corporator. Ten other smaller trees of the species Ficus Berjauviva with an approximate height of 5ft were uprooted from the same spot.
According to Amol Vasaikarm, junior tree officer at D ward, there seemed to be some constant mischief to get rid of fully-grown trees. “Just two days ago, branches of Gulmohar, Putrajeera and Peltoforum trees were cut and one tree was even cut down. There is a hoarding of coaching classes displayed at a distance and those trees might have blocked its view. I will put up the case with the tree authority. With constructions going on, they just keep cutting trees,” he said.
Pointing at trees next to a green patch, Vasaikarm said, “They have a modus operandi of ensuring that trees die, so that they can be removed from the spot.” Creating a hole on the bark at a height, fixing numerous nails are ways used by people to kill trees. Five trees had such problems.
The procedure says that the garden department lodge a police complaint and inform the license department which can fine the hoarding owner or discontinue the permit.
Confirming about the incident, Vilas Joshi, senior police inspector, said, “The garden inspector has given the complaint. Tomorrow we will get permission from court to question the hoarding owner.”
However, unless it is proved in court that the hoarding owner is behind the deed, action cannot be taken.
VS Dande, superintendent garden, said, “We can fine people up to Rs5,000 and can even imprison them, but that needs to be proved in the court through witnesses.”
According to Joshi, hoarding owners get some poor man and offer about Rs200 to cut a tree. The person caught today was brought from Mumbai Central where he was sleeping.
He does not know the person who engaged him for the work. “Generally, no one else but the hoarding owners only would have interest to cut a tree beside a hoarding,” he said.
When contacted, superintendent license B Gholap said, “I will ask the local ward to take action if a police complaint is lodged.”
The ward officer was not available for comments.