Civic body struggling to find tree experts

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has to now come up with more independent experts in its tree authority as the Bombay high court reiterated that the number of councillors and the independent experts must be equal in the Tree Authority (TA) as per its earlier order.

BMC officials have maintained that they have been finding it difficult to appoint experts as per the eligibility criteria.

As of now, four independent experts have been appointed to the TA after the Bombay high court deemed the authority illegal.

“There are 15 members in the TA apart from the experts, and the number of councillors has exceeded the number of independent experts which goes against the HC order of having an equal number of both councillors and tree experts from non-government organisations,” said Zoru Bhathena, the petitioner.

Meanwhile, the BMC has claimed that it had received around 37 applications for the position of independent experts till now.

“We are facing difficulties in selecting the eligible candidate, who must have at least 10 years of experience in the field of protection and preservation of trees. Not many are experienced in that way,” said an official from the TA. However, it has been highlighted that a minimum of five years of experience in the field is a pre-requisite for the position of an expert member of the TA.

“The earlier high court order has mentioned that for non-official members, preference should be given to those who have expertise of five years in the plantation and preservation of trees,” said Mr Bhathena.