As the protest against the proposed cutting of trees for the implementation of River Front Development (RFD) project hots up, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is all set to put the ball in the court of the Maharashtra government to take a final call on the matter after holding a public hearing. The civic body has planned to chop down over 6,000 trees alongside Mula and Mutha river that passes through the city to make way for the project. As a mark of opposition to the move, many eminent environmentalists returned the PMC’s award ‘Paryavaran Doot' bestowed on them for their contribution to the protection of the natural ecosystem. The protest was further intensified as the environment experts along with the public took out a march from Sambhaji Garden to Mutha riverbed, near Garware College bridge, where they hugged the trees as a part of `Chipko Andolan' against the harsh anti-environment approach. "The PMC had sought permission from the Pune Tree Authority (PTA) for the cutting down of trees for the riverfront development project. There were 150 objections raised against it. So the public hearing will take place from May 8 to 10, and 50 people will be called for hearing every day," said Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar. The Pune Tree Authority will submit its report to the Maharashtra government for the final decision, he said, and added that the PMC will complete all the required procedures as per the law. Meanwhile, the PMC has claimed that most of the trees that are proposed to be cut down are bushes and foreign species. "We will be planting more than 65,000 trees of local species to compensate for the trees to be cut for the project," said PMC executive engineer Yuvraj Deshmukh. According to the civic proposal, a total of 7,539 trees are going to be affected of which 3,110 would be completely chopped down while 4,329 would be transplanted. The PMC will be planting 66,434 new trees to compensate for the damage. Ravindra Sinha, an activist who has been called for the public hearing, said it is highly objectionable that the civic body of Pune has proposed to cut full-grown age-old trees in the riparian zone of an ancient river which is the natural habitat of endemic flora and fauna. The riparian zone of rivers is a dense forested area and is a habitat to endemic flora and fauna and it is a deemed forest under Forest Protection Act. Any proposal to cut or transplant trees from riparian zones will negatively impact the aquatic life, birds, animals, and reptiles many of which are protected species as per the Wildlife Protection Act, Sinha said. He pointed out that the expert committee report is not attached along with the proposal. As per rule, experts are required to have inspected and surveyed the trees, made observations, taken photographs, etc and made their comments.
