BMC flouts eco rule, hacks tree without permission

MUMBAI, MAY 29: A 25-year-old jamun tree was ruthlessly hacked and uprooted by the BMC employees of H-East ward office on Friday at Kalin...

MUMBAI, MAY 29: A 25-year-old jamun tree was ruthlessly hacked and uprooted by the BMC employees of H-East ward office on Friday at Kalina, to make way for a welfare centre on the spot.

The tree has been cut without prior permission from the Tree Authority. A member of the organisation, Nandu Naik, said,8220;Under Section 21 of the Maharashtra Urban Areas Preservation amp; Protection of Trees Act, 1996, even the branches of a tree cannot be cut without our permission, leave alone the cutting down of the entire tree.8221;

Shocked by this blatant violation of environment norms, the angry residents of Kalina have already complained to Vakola police and the Tree Authority in an attempt to initiate action against the ward office. In a letter written to the senior inspector of Vakola police today, one of the residents, Oscar Kinny, has stated that the fully grown tree was chopped down by the BMC staff without any valid permission from the concerned authority.

In another letter written to the ward officer, S HGhatge-Patil, the residents have stated: 8220;The 25-year-old tree was planted by Late Shri C D Oommachen, the then municipal councillor, near the gate of the Vidyanagri Post Office in Kalina. The Kalina residents, who have also taken photographs of the chopped tree, have been informed that the BMC had not taken the required permission before cutting it down, so as to facilitate the construction of a structure on the recommendation of the ruling alliance8217;s MP.8221;

When contacted, ward officer Ghatge-Patil admitted that the BMC had cut down the jamun tree on Friday. 8220;I was earlier not aware about the tree-cutting, but later found out that the BMC staff from the garden department of H-east ward had cut the tree on Friday afternoon to make way for a welfare centre from the MP fund of Madhukar Sarpotdar.8221;

Ghatge-Patil added that though no prior permission was taken from the Tree Authority, he will obtain an 8220;ex-post facto sanction8221; for the cutting of the tree. But, as Naik from Tree Authority has clarified,not even the branches can be cut without the permission of the body.

Naik, who is also the honorary general secretary of Friends of Trees, added that he will certainly take up the matter with the higher authorities. 8220;On one hand, the BMC is talking about a greener Bombay, and on the other, they themselves are illegally hacking down the trees!8221; he commented.

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Interestingly, the spot chosen for constructing the welfare centre originally belonged to the University of Mumbai, and in 1982, the stretch of land was given away to the BMC for the purpose of widening the road.

Another Kalina resident, Amarjit Manhas, further pointed that in 1997, the same H-east ward office had rejected a similar proposal to build a welfare centre on the spot from the fund of the ex-MP, Jagesh Desai, which was rejected on the ground that a 8220;permanent structure cannot come up on a temporary site8221; marked for road widening.