Construction activities to claim 234 trees

Mumbai: The city will lose 234 trees for the construction activities for important establishments like Veermata Jijabai Technical Institute (VJTI), Nair Dental Hospital and Tata Memorial Hospital.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has tabled four tree cutting proposals which involve these three prominent city establishments and an eye hospital in F-North ward before the tree authority meeting which is to be held on Monday, November 6. According to these proposals, 234 trees will be removed, out of which 140 trees will be cut right away and 94 will be transplanted.

According to civic officials, the cutting and transplantation of trees is required for the construction of VJTI hostel building at Matunga, the proposed building of Nair Dental College at Mumbai Central and reconstruction of the proposed building of Tata Memorial Hospital at Parel.

“We sought feedback from citizens for the tree cutting proposals and even held a hearing at garden superintendent. But, we received no objections except for the Tata Memorial Hospital proposal,” said a senior official.

In case of VJTI and eye hospital, the concerned parties have submitted an affidavit that the new trees and transplanted trees will be relocated on an open plot at the same place within 15 days. In the Nair Dental College proposal, the party has agreed to plant trees in the ratio of 1:3 as per the directives of High Court, he added.

Several proposals come up for approval before the civic tree authority, which involves chopping and  transplantation of trees in large numbers for development and   infrastructure projects. However, there are allegations that developing agencies and builders pay no attention to the rule of planting triple the number of trees that have been axed. Due to lack of proper information, no action is taken against those who have flouted the rules regarding planting of trees.

Tree authority member Abhijeet Chavan from the NCP said, “History shows that the civic administration has never provided us the data of the number of trees planted by developers in lieu of trees cut. They also do not have the data about how many trees
have survived after transplantation.”