Government action on mealy bug attacks comes three years too late

Three years after mealy bug infestation haunted thousands of Mumbai rain-trees in 2013, and even as the trees that survived the attack are on their way to revival in 2016, BJP government has woken from its slumber to form an expert committee to review the alleged ‘fungal attack’ on trees. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis gave orders two days ago to prepare an expert committee to enquire about the said attack after Aashish Shelar, Mumbai president of the party, raised the issue. However, amused tree experts have pointed out that the mealy bug attack is a thing of the past and the issue of concretisation of bases of trees continues to kill the trees.

Two days ago, the CMO office tweeted about the formation of a committee to review the state of rain trees. “CM @Dev_Fadnavis also said that an expert committee will be appointed to suggest remedies to stop spreading of fungal attack on trees,” tweeted CMO Maharashtra. Mr Shelar followed up by tweeting, “Happy that on my demand state directed BMC 2 appoint expert com to protect & treatment for dying old big rain trees in city!”

When The Asian Age asked Mr Shelar if the issue he pointed out was same as the 2014 mealy bug attack or a new one that he has come across, he only replied saying “Yes”. When asked further about the issue, Mr Shelar said, “The trees (under fungal attack) are everywhere. Khardanda, Shivaji Park, Poddar College and at numerous places in Dadar, Vile Parle, Santacruz and Andheri. I don’t know the exact number but they could probably be about 100. Some are old some are new,” said Mr Shelar.

On the other hand, trees experts have pointed out that the issue of fungal infection raised by BJP is a thing of the past. They said the basic problem of the rain trees is concretisation of their bases as well as lack of space for the roots to grow and water scarcity resulting out of the same. Stalin Dayanand from NGO Vanshakti, which studied the problem in 2014 and came up with a report in June 2014, said that the government is slated to spend millions on studying an issue for which they have already suggested solutions.

“We had recommended that the base of the trees be de-paved and/or de-concretised. Bases should be left un-concretised up till the extent of a tree’s Protected Root Zone (PRZ). These are basic issues. If the roots don’t get enough space to grow, the tree is slated to wither. The fungal attack is the result of poor immunity of the tree. We are surprised how the government suddenly woke up after one politician noticed the issue now after two years of us publishing a thorough scientific study,” said Mr Dayanand.

Rishi Agarwal, environmentalist and active participant of Save Aarey Group (SAG) said, “Around 5,000 trees were affected during 2013-2015. While in the later part of 2015 the trees had started reviving, 2016 has proved to be a better year for the salvaged rain trees. I am curious what the expert committee will study now,” said Mr Agarwal.

Gardens Department of BMC on the other hand is completely unaware of the entire debate and said they would follow the directives given by CMO’s office.