Fine of Rs 1 lakh mooted for every missing tree

AHMEDABAD: Here is an early warning for those residential schemes that have fewer trees surviving than that mandated by the ‘building use’ permissions. In its recent weekly meeting, the municipal town planning department has mooted a suggestion to fine between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh as fine for every tree that falls short of the mandated number in a residential or commercial property.
On April 30, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s (AMC) TDO office had issued a circular to all zonal offices to begin inspection activities. The AMC will now peek into roughly 3,500 residential and commercial societies that were built between 2016 and 2019 to inspect whether the tree count reflected on town planning records match with those present in the society.
Societies should be ready for a show-cause notice and punitive measures from the AMC if their tree counts fall short of TP records.
The circular was issued by DyMC town planning scheme, J S Prajapati, to all zonal offices. The society will be required to send the AMC pictures of tree plantation, which will be kept as a record against which further notices will be issued.
If the civic body seriously pursues this cause, it can turn the city’s fortunes around in addressing issues of particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) pollution and that of extreme heat.
In 2016 the ‘The Nature Conservancy Report’ had listed Ahmedabad among 10 global cities that need a sizeable investment in tree plantation drives to save its population from particulate matter pollution.