Journalism of Courage
Three days after the Carmel Convent School tragedy, the UT Administration on Monday wrote to its forest and wildlife department seeking permission to axe a 150-year-old Heritage Tree that stands inside Vatika School for Deaf and Dumb Children in Sector 19.
According to details, the horticulture wing of the UT administration filed an online request for felling the Heritage Tree, which will be forwarded to the UT Forest and Wildlife Department for clearance.
Sources said that Monday’s request was only the second time in the last two-and-a-half-years when a request had been made for the felling of completely dry Heritage Tree standing in the institute of deaf and dumb children.
Officials said that in the present case, the tree in question was a grand mango tree which had been declared a heritage propertie in December, 2017, with 31 others. Monday’s online request for axing the tree was made by Junior Engineer (JE) of UT’s horticulture wing, Baldev Raj Singh.
Contacted, Singh said, “Though the roots of the mango heritage tree appears to be imbedded 5-6 meters deep in earth, it is completely dry. Earlier, we had pruned many branches of this tree to reduce the weight on its roots. These heritage trees are under the UT Forest and Wildlife department. We can only act when the forest department gives us the nod.”
Sources added that the administration had decided to also prune the branches of a second 250-year-old peepal heritage tree that was located in a public park opposite Carmel Convent School, Sector 9. “The branches of that tree are widespread and low hanging. People walking in the park need to mind their heads while crossing the tree. A team inspected the tree and found that the height of the tree in the park was not too much and its roots were bearing way too much weight,” an official said.
As per records available, Chandigarh had 31 heritage trees, of which at least seven were located outside or on the premises of various educational institutions. One such tree had fallen inside the premises of Carmel Convent School, Sector 9, on Friday claiming the life of a 16-year-old student, Heerakshi, besides injuring several others.
The institutes were the remaining heritage trees are located are Government Girls Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 18 (four heritage trees), inside the premises of Vatika School for Deaf and Dumb Children in Sector 19 (one heritage tree), in front of the building of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 23 (one heritage tree), and inside the campus of Government Model School, Sector 28 (one heritage tree).
