20 days later, most of 3,800 saplings at MNP washed out

Twenty days after forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar inaugurated the much-acclaimed mega plantation drive at Maharashtra Nature Park (MNP) in Sion on July 1, a lack of maintenance facilities has put the very future of this initiative in danger. The absence of security measures and a permanent protective boundary around the park has resulted in most saplings being washed away.

Within 20 days of the mega plantation drive, nearly all 3,800 indigenous trees planted at MNP have been washed out by the rain owing to a lack of measures for their protection.

“Many of the children play inside the park, and trample the plantation site. Also, since the trees were recently planted, they weren’t strong enough to hold ground in the face of pounding rain,” said a park official.

Just a couple of days before the inauguration, officials had built a temporary fence using ropes and bamboo scaffolding and deployed guards to man it. While the park itself is located in the middle of Bandra-Sion Link Road and the Dharavi slums, the absence of measures to prevent encroachment and debris dumping adversely affected the saplings.

The state government’s ambitious tree plantation programme is aimed at increasing the state’s green cover to 33 per cent to fight climate change and the drought-like situation in Maharashtra.

Out of the total 307 lakh hectare area in the state, around 20 per cent (61.35 lakh hectare) is covered by forests, while as per the National Forest Act, 1988, 33 per cent area should have green cover, which is mainly why the state government decided to plant two crore trees within 24 hours as part of the mega plantation drive.