CM tells civic administration to probe tree census lapses

Pune: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has told the civic administration to conduct an inquiry into alleged lapses in the tree census, under way in the city for the past two years.
Shivajinagar MLA Vijay Kale had raised the issue in the ongoing budget session of the state assembly. He said an inquiry would reveal more details about the alleged lapses.

Kale said, “The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has appointed a private agency to conduct the tree census. Recently, objections were raised by the tree authority members over the census work and payments made to the agency by the administration in an improper manner. Questions were also raised on the absence of tree census data on the website of PMC though the agency was expected to upload the data at regular intervals. We want the administration to come clean on all the points raised by the tree authority and elected representatives.”

Kale said he got a written reply from Fadnavis to the question he had raised. He claimed that the only intention behind raising the issue in the assembly was to ensure better outcome of the tree census.

“It has to be understood that the tree census is taking place in the city after five years. It is an important project for the city in terms of environment protection and conservation. We, therefore, want the civic administration to be more alert about the execution of the project and take all the necessary steps to ensure accurate results and maintain transparency in the project execution,” he said.

A source in PMC said the elected representatives had raised questions over the tree census and payments being made to the agency by the administration. The census of about 23 lakh trees has been completed so far.

According to rough estimates, about 30 lakh trees in the city will be covered under the ongoing census.

The field work of the project is expected to get over by August 2018. The trees are being mapped in various categories. The census will also help identify the endangered species of trees.

Questioning the tree census method, civic activists stressed that details of the census should be shared on real-time basis. Vinod Jain, an environment activist, said the tree census should follow the method of numbering of trees to ensure that every tree counted would get a unique number.

“The ongoing census is not following the numbering system. This could create confusion in the future because there are trees in common public areas and on private campuses or buildings. Numbering could make the identification of every tree simpler for common people,” he said.

According to environment activist Vaishali Patkar, the tree census data was not being made available on real-time basis. “We have urged to upload the data regularly and not to wait till the census of the entire zone gets over. Regular update will help people monitor the census work,” Patkar said.