Mumbai: Amid the controversy over felling of 1,000 trees in Priyadarshini Park, Aurangabad, for the Balasaheb Thackeray memorial, a Shiv Sena leader claimed that chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has given verbal orders not to cut the trees for the memorial.
A tree authority member of the district's civic body also said that razing trees there would destroy the green lung and its ecology.
Senior Sena leader and former Aurangabad MP Chandrakant Khaire told a news agency, “We have received oral orders from chief minister Uddhav Thackeray Sunday night, asking us not to touch any tree for building the memorial. The same has already been conveyed to the mayor and will be followed strictly. We will build the memorial by keeping all the trees intact.”
Mr Khaire said that the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had neither finalised any tender nor issued any work order. (Late) Balasaheb Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray were very caring about the environment and the Sena never said it would hack trees in Priyadarshini Garden for the memorial, he emphasised.
Highlighting that Priyadarshini Park had a diverse ecology comprising birds, insects and reptiles, Mr Khaire said that the issue of felling a 1,000 trees for the memorial was just a rumour spread by vested interests who were against the memorial.
AMC tree committee member Kishor Pathak, too, said that chopping a large number of trees for the memorial would destroy the existing ecology. “The park is home to at least 80 types of birds, out of which 52 are Indian and the rest are foreign. There are 35 types of butterflies, seven types of snakes, and 80 types of insects. This place is still a home for animals and a major oxygen hub,” he said.
Mr Pathak added that the AMC had proposed flooring around 7,500 trees to make way for a complex of shops, cafeterias and a children’s park. The proposal came a day after Aurangabad mayor Nand-kumar Ghodele Sunday said that his administration would not allow the knocking down of trees for the Thackeray memorial.
