Tree authority allows 5,249 axings in 1st meeting

Mumbai: A month after its formation, the Thane Municipal Corporation’s (TMC) Tree Authority, approved the hacking of 5,249 trees in Thane city. The decision was made in the body’s first meeting, which was held on October 9, as per the meeting’s minutes. The authority was formed after the February municipal elections.

More than half of the 5,249 trees are to be removed for real estates projects. While activists are appalled about the tree authority sanctioning the cutting of 5,000 trees in its first meeting, mostly for private projects, the tree authority officials maintain that the high number is due to the late formation of the committee and the projects that have been pending since a year.

According to the report, 3,809 trees are proposed to be transplanted across the city. The trees are to be hacked for public projects like road widening in LBS Road, Retibandar Mahaghat, Ghodbander, Manpada Junction, Kalyan-Shilphata and Mumbra Bypass. The public works also include nullah construction in Majiwada-Manpada and construction work of railway project between Thane and Diva. However, 2,670 trees have been proposed to be removed for real estate constructions like Agile real estates and Piramal estates.

Activists have questioned the haste with which the tree committee has cleared tree-cutting proposal for real estate builders. “It is shocking that the TMC tree authority has not even considered saving trees from real estate constructions. Although the tree authority is claiming that most trees will be transplanted, it has been time and again proven that survival rate of transplanted trees is very low,” said Rohit Joshi, a Thane-based tree activist.

Kokate Sudhir Vishnu, a member of tree authority, said that the developers would transplant most of the trees and they also would have to plant five trees for each tree they cut.

However, tree authority sources stated that no plans for transplantation by the developers have been submitted to the tree authority as of now.