Did contractor go overboard with tree trimming before Prez visit?

Nagpur: President Ram Nath Kovind's office has firmly denied having given any instructions for chopping or trimming trees for his visit to city. Kovind visited the city for a slew of events on Friday, ahead of which the civic body had went on a trimming spree.

A high-ranking officer from Rashtrapati Bhavan told TOI that the office never directs the local bodies or district administration to trim or cut trees falling on the presidential convoy route.

District administration, too, also said it had no role in the tree trimming exercise. "We did not issue any notification regarding this," said a senior official from collectorate.

As reported by TOI last week, trees on the likely route of his cavalcade were heavily trimmed by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation's garden department. Countering NMC officials' claims that only some drooping branches posing danger were trimmed for security reasons, greens said that trees were indiscriminately trimmed. They demanded that brutal trimming of age-old trees during VVIP visits should be stopped.

Maintaining that the order from the authorities of "cutting only where necessary" was not implemented, members of Green Vigil Foundation said that "unkind" cutting of trees was evident at places like Ajni and Civil Lines.

Giving an example, green activist Shrikant Deshpande said, "A huge branch of an old Neem tree, which was not even projecting on the road, was completely chopped off. It must have taken 20 years for the branch to grow."

NMC officials said that they had strictly directed the workers to do light trimming using scissors.

Blaming the private contractors hired by NMC, Green Vigil members said, "NMC's intention of pruning some trees from security point of view is right. However due to absence of proper monitoring, the contractor exceeds his brief and cuts maximum branches for timber."

Suspecting scope for manipulation, activists said that many times, a large percentage of timber remains unaccounted. "The garden department is under-staffed. Taking advantage of this, the contractors do not account the exact quantity in NMC's kitty and make personal profits by selling the unaccounted timber," Deshpande added.

It is the second time this year that a VVIP visit proved costly for the city's green cover. In April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the city became the reason for brutal trimming of around 500 age-old trees.

"As the civic body is aware of such visits in advance, it should form a team to survey the convoy route and mark trees or branches that are a genuine threat. Cutting down branches haphazardly of all the trees falling on the route is illogical and a legal way of getting timber," said the NGO members.