Mumbai could lose over 900 trees

More than 900 trees are in danger of getting wiped out from the city due to various construction activities. While about 400 of them will get hacked right away, more than 500 will be transplanted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to other places.

In the BMC tree authority meeting to be held on June 17, as many as 55 proposals —most of them pertaining to cutting and transplantation of trees — will be tabled for approval. In majority of proposals, the BMC has proposed to transplant trees, which are coming in the way of construction activities.

In Vikhroli East, 26 trees will be hacked and 125 will be transplanted for the proposed development work by M/s Godrej Vikhroli Properties. It has also been proposed to cut 70 and transplant 68 trees to facilitate the construction of a building under SRA scheme at Santa Cruz (west).

To maintain green cover in the city, the civic body has decided to stress more on tree replanting and transplant rather than cutting them. The chopping of trees will be done only in exceptional cases.

However, corporators are sceptical of civic body’s claims of transplanting the trees and maintaining them. Tree authority member Abhijeet Chavan said, “The BMC never gives authentic information about transplanted trees in the city. We had asked details about actual survival of trees after transplantation, they give us figures only after giving occupation certificate (OC) to developers. There is a huge difference in this.” “I had also demanded that a committee of technical experts should visit the spots of transplanted trees and submit the report. But the civic body is turning a deaf ear to this,” he added.