Transplantation option not explored, 60 trees chopped

NAGPUR: In the third large-scale tree felling case this week, 60 age-old trees were completely chopped off in the city, taking the total number of felled trees to 213 in seven days.

The 60 trees, many of which were planted by British officers before Independence, are being felled at police commissioner’s office in Civil Lines for the construction of a new administrative building.

Though the authority took permission from the Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) garden department, it failed in exploring the possibility of transplantation process which could have probably saved trees many of which are full grown.

While issuing permission letters, NMC mentions that the option of transplantation trees should be considered wherever possible. Despite success stories of tree transplantation carried out by Mahametro in the city, neither the civic body nor agencies like police department or Public Works Department are showing any inclination to save green cover by relocating trees.

Instead, garden department officials said that transplantation was a complex process which can only be done during monsoon, a reason which was trashed by green activists.

During a spot visit to the construction site on Thursday, the contractor told TOI that there was shortage of space for transplanting trees. As per NMC rules, the contractor has been entrusted with the responsibility of planting 300 trees as compensatory plantations (5 times of those being cut). “We will do the plantations in the same premises after the construction work is completed,” he said.

The police department has reportedly deposited over Rs4 lakh with the garden department, which will be refunded once the compensatory plantation is successfully done.

“Instead of cutting down 60 trees and then planting 300 in the same place, the agencies could have simply transplanted the existing trees. No number of new plantations can compensate for age-old trees which are the lungs of our city,” said green activist Shrikant Deshpande.

Activists also expressed doubts over the survival of compensatory plantations. “The garden department is already understaffed. By the time the building is constructed, more cases of tree feeling will come up and there is a high possibility that officials won’t have time or manpower to monitor the survival of plantations,” said Kaustav Chatterjee, founder of Green Vigil foundation.

Chatterjee has been demanding that compensatory plantations should be mandatorily carried out before beginning tree felling.

About a week back, 15 fully-grown trees were chopped off near Udyog Bhavan in Civil Lines, for construction of Food and Drug Administration’s building. In this case too, PWD failed in going for transplantation despite the clause being mentioned in the permission letter.

Two days back, over 100 fully grown trees were chopped at the 22-acre premises of Government Polytechnic in Sadar. In a recent affidavit filed in Nagpur bench of Bombay high court, the garden department informed that it gave permissions to fell over 1,800 trees in the city in last six months.