BMC proposal to cut 2593 trees in city generates political heat

BJP criticise questions Sena’s role even as activists question timing of such lockdown proposals

@hepzia

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) proposal to cut about 2,593 trees in Mumbai for various projects has picked up political heat in Mumbai. Though a meeting of the Tree Authority (TA), a committee of corporators and tree experts that sanction tree felling in Mumbai, has not been held since March, the garden department’s notices calling for objections against the tree cuttings, during the lockdown, has raised eyebrows.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Ashish Shelar on July 28 tweeted about how the Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray was busy lapping up publicity for saving one 400-yer-old Banyan Tree in Sangli even as 2593 trees were being cut in Mumbai. Yashwant Jadhav, chairperson of Standing Committee in BMC and also a member of the TA, said that his party leadership would take a call on the issue at the appropriate time.

Ironically, just last year, it was the BJP, which had used brutal police force to cut 2141 trees overnight between October 4 and 5, 2019 after vociferously supporting and pushing through the proposal of cutting 2185 trees in Aarey for Metro car shed. 

Though Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray spoke in had support of trees in Aarey and Uddhav Thackeray had promised no further tree cuttings in Aarey soon after taking over as chief minister, tree cutting permissions continue to be granted elsewhere. Uddhav Thackeray had recently opposed gauge conversion railway work within Melghat Tiger Reserve.  

Currently, the 2593 trees include two separate proposals for 1961 trees and 632 trees. Tree activist Zoru Bhathena questioned about the timing of these tree cutting proposals during the lockdown that prevents activists from conducting site visits to check the trees to raise objections to it. Bhathena himself was alerted to the proposals, when his friend who stepped out after two months, happened to spot a notice stuck up on a tree. 

However, garden department officials say that they these proposals are merely “routine” as part of their regular course of work. “We are just completing the procedures before putting up proposals before the TA, so that they work doesn’t pile up. Also, most of the tree cutting proposals are for developmental works like widening of roads, nallas or railway lines or Metro, which are regular works,” a garden department official told thenews21 “The 2593 tree cutting proposal includes cutting of 382 trees for the Goregaon Mulund Link Road (GMLR), 41 trees for Metro 3 lines between Vidhan Bhavan to Mantralaya, 182 trees for the widening of the road between Suman Nagar to Jhulelal Chowk, 34 trees for the Anti-Terrorist Squad building at Mazgaon, 119 trees for Metro 6 project at Wadala (E) casting yard and 167 trees for Metro 4 project between Bhandup Sonapur and Johnson and Johnson junction”.   

As per the tree census of Mumbai conducted in 2018, Mumbai has 29.75 lakh trees. A recent study found that Mumbai had lost over 42.5% of its urban green over, bigger than the size of its national park, in the past three decades. 

The details of the tree cutting proposals are available online by clicking on the docs uploaded on the gardens and Tree authority department section of portal.mcgm.gov.in. Objections can be sent online on sg.gardens@mcgm.gov.in.