Vadodara8217;s trees surrender to the development axe

While some of the trees are 80 years old, the majority of them were planted long before the roadlines were drawn up. Not just trees along the main road, those planted on private land, government and public sector enterprises, too, will fall under the axe.

Among them are 30-odd palm trees planted in the early 1960s by physician Mohanbhai Patel in his Vasna Road farmhouse. 8220;It8217;s like losing my children; I8217;ve almost seen them grow leaf by leaf8221;, says the doctor of the imminent destruction on the land lately acquired by the VMC. Among others8217;, the civic body has also taken over land from the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation 8212; trees grown here will be auctioned soon 8212; and the army at Makarpura.

This was the inevitable fallout of road-widening projects, admits VMC executive engineer roads projects M M Patel, adding that apart from the 178 trees chopped down between Makarpura and Jambuva, another 150 to be soon pulled down.

According to Parks and Gardens director Mohanbhai Patel, 500 more trees were doomed in other parts of the city. Sources add that 100-odd of these are on each of Chanakyapuri Road and the Natubhai Centre-Gotri Road, while another 120 lay between Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and the Pratapnagar overbridge.

8220;It8217;s sad to see these trees disappearing8221;, says Mohanbhai Patel. 8220;At least some of them could have been saved if the engineers had not measured the VIP Road width wrong.8221; M M Patel counters this allegation by claiming such mistakes were rare, but admits that 25 per cent of the trees could have been escaped unscathed if the roads were laid immediately after the roadlines were drawn up 8212; a near-impossibility considering the hassles over land acquisition.

Says Deputy Municipal Commissioner administration H S Patel, 8220;We are pained to do this, but there8217;s no alternative. But we8217;ll ensure compensatory planting over the next three years.8221;

The VMC has to plant five trees for every one it cuts down, says Society for Clean Environment president V V Modi. President of the Gujarat chapter of the World Wide Fund for Nature Ranjitsinh Gaekwad, too, is of the same opinion. 8220;The media will bring pressure on them if they don8217;t8221;, adds Modi. 8220;Besides, the VMC should consult the aesthetically inclined and make optimum use of the trees on road dividers.8221;

According to International Society of Naturalists general secretary G M Oza, not all the trees need be cut. 8220;Trees upto five years old can be uprooted and replanted elsewhere. Besides, those at road corners should be used to demarcate a lane for pedestrians or two-wheelers.8221;

Mohanbhai Patel is open to the idea of replanting, but says it can be implemented only in the monsoons. So far as the new plantings were concerned, he says he8217;ll wait till the roads are laid. 8220;I don8217;t want the saplings to be damaged,8221; he explains. Till then, Vadodara will just have to learn to breathe a little more laboriously.