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Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has asked the civic body to explain what is being done to replant trees that are cut to make way for construction and what efforts were being taken to preserve and maintain them.
As rampant construction, road widening and concreting takes a toll on the green cover of Mumbai, an environmentalist has approached the court with various concerns. If left unresolved, he says Mumbai would turn into a concrete jungle, especially its suburbs.
The court on Thursday passed an order directing the Tree Authority and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to file affidavits replying to the various points made in the petition by Sumaira Abduali of Awaaz Foundation, an NGO fighting against environmental degradation.
"I'm happy some beginning has been made since the authorities have no records of trees cut," she told Gulf News.
Procedures being followed for granting tree cutting permissions are not what they should be, she says.
"The Tree Authority is normally approached for permission to cut trees only after Development Plans are complete - although the Tree Act specifies that this should be done before hand so that maximum number of trees may be protected."
Overnight cuts
There are scores of incidents when trees have been cut overnight to make way for new structures. In March 2007, residents living in and around the bungalow of the late film actor Rajendra Kumar in Pali Hill, Bandra, woke up one morning to find that 33 trees in the compound had been hacked, which included coconut palms and several old, healthy trees.
These had been home for a large number of birds, kingfishers, woodpeckers, koyal or the Indian cuckoo and others. The bungalow had been reportedly sold to a developer who was planning a residential complex on this plot.
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