Planted for greenery, they are now a nuisance

VADODARA: Conocarpus trees have enhanced the greenery in the city, but they are now becoming a nuisance for the citizens!. The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC), which had planted these trees in the last four to five years, is now wary of them.
The VMC planted lakhs of trees around the year 2017 as part of the Mission Million trees initiative. The trees were planted in open spaces and on the side of roads and in dividers in the city. A large number of these trees were conocarpus or saptaparni trees.
Seeing the scale at which the trees were being planted, some environment lovers had even raised eyebrows. These trees were preferred as they did not need a lot of care, were not eaten by animals and grew very fast. The civic body has now started trimming these trees as they have started obstructing streetlights and obstructed the view of advertising boards. A bigger concern is that the tree may be consuming a lot of groundwater and could deplete the levels.
“We have also been told that its roots run very deep and draw a lot of water,” said VMC’s standing committee chairman Dr Hitendra Patel.
Patel said that functionaries had been mulling over the issue for quite some time now. Eventually, they decided to go ahead and trim the trees immediately. These may now be removed completely in the coming days. The VMC has now started identifying areas where these trees have been planted in large numbers, particularly on road dividers. The civic body will take up one area at a time and trim the trees first and then remove them. Some officials, however, have suggested that an expert opinion should be sought before removing the trees.