Trees felled in festive fervour

[karira]

As reported by TNN in timesofindia.indiatimes.com on 26 August 2008:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/M...ow/3405572.cms

Trees felled in festive fervour

MUMBAI: As city residents get into the festive mood after breaking dahi handis for Janmashtami and with Ganesh Chaturthi around the corner, tree lovers are wary that this fervour may end up harming trees.

Tree lovers say that instances of branches being illegally chopped and trees being trimmed to increase visibility of banners and hoardings is on the rise, especially during celebrations that draw huge crowds. In some areas, trees are also being illegally trimmed to make way for construction of mandals for Ganesh Chaturthi.

During Janmashtami celebrations on Sunday, branches of three trees in Nerul's Sector 19 were chopped to make banners more visible. Residents of Madhavi building , who witnessed the trees being trimmed, said that all this happened under the nose of the local corporator whose office is located opposite the site.

Some activists like member of F-North Ward Citizens Federation G R Vora say that government apathy in dealing with cases governing tree trimming may be behind this practice. "A citizen who spots this being done can lodge an FIR at the local police station, but the case doesn't come up for hearing for years together,'' he said, adding that after trees are illegally cut, the branches are immediately whisked away in trucks. "The offenders leave behind no clues. Then, it becomes difficult to even prove the crime,'' he said.

Other activists say that sometimes small-time contractors are hired to illegally chop branches. The contractors then make extra money by selling off the wood, if the trimming is of a huge quantity.

Vora said several instances of tree trimming had occurred at Flank Road, near the Jain Society in Sion west and the area between Sion and Dadar Circles.

Member of NGO I Love Mumbai and nominated member of the BMC's Tree Authority Niranjan Shetty said that a case of tree trimming had also been recently reported at Mumbai Central.

An RTI query revealed that the civic body had no mechanism in place to check illegal hoardings or to book those who had violated laws. In its reply, the civic body stated that no penalty had been imposed on anyone for violation of rules since January 1 this year in the F-North ward.

"I am a resident of the area and I can see that hoardings and banners have been put up for months together even though the permissible time limit is five days for commercial use and 10 days for political use,'' said Vora, adding that if a hoarding owner chops a tree or cuts a branch to guarantee better visibility, the only action taken by the BMC is licence revocation. "There is no way to deter a person from committing the same mistake again,'' said Vora.