AXED......AND COUNTING
Maharashtra Herald, May,6 2006
VINITA DESHMUKH
The construction boom that the city
is witnessing since the last five years has been spelling doom for its green
cover, considering that more than 50,000 trees have been felled, say green
activists. A fact, corroborated by the monthly docket released by the Pune
Municipal Corporation (PMC) which lists around 1,000 to 1,200 trees per month
slated for felling, based on the applications filed by builders, developers and
individuals for construction sites and from the road department for road
widening.
The 50,000 figure could well be an
understatement say green activists considering that indiscriminate tree felling
in the form of chopping more trees than the permission granted and illegal tree
felling in man-made forest parks like Bhamburda and Pachgaon Parvati are
allegedly rampant and contribute towards the depleting green cover.
Sadly, the Pune Municipal
Corporation itself violates the stringent norms laid down by the Maharashtra
(Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975, as discovered by
the 10 month old citizen pressure group, the Pune Tree Watch, which has come to
be the watchdog for curtailing needless chopping of trees, compelling the PMC
to toe the right line. The idea, say members, is not to halt development, but
fell trees, only if required.
The Pune Tree Watch, which began as
a yahoo discussion group, with a mere five members, has now grown to 107
members, who play a pro-active part by involving themselves in a sustained and
relentless campaign for preserving trees. For this, monitoring the monthly
docket issued by the PMC (which was published in obscure newspapers until
recently and now thanks to the pressure from these activists, the docket has
made way to respectable newspapers too, to bring to the notice of citizens so
that they can file suggestions and objections); inspecting the sites mentioned
in the docket to ensure whether the trees are really required to be felled and
then filing objections with the garden department, based on the survey, has
been an onerous task.
Over the last few months, the Pune
Tree Watch members have saved about 500 trees in different neighbourhoods. The
garden department of the PMC, which was allegedly giving permission
indiscriminately earlier, says Tasneem Balasinorwala, a prominent member, ``is
now lending a favourable ear to our objections and carrying out joint
inspections with our members.''
The latest campaign concerns that
of the Nagar Road, where 1300 trees are scheduled to be felled in the five
kilometer stretch between Ramwadi Octroi post upto the new PMC limits at
Kharadi (for road widening under the Integrated Road Development Project
(IRDP), as per the March docket released by the PMC. The felling has been
sanctioned in two phases, out of which immediate permission has been given to
fell 585 trees between Ramwadi Octroi post and Viman Nagar Chowk. Some of trees
would be transplanted.
As per the rules, before felling
any tree, the civic authority is required to fix a notice on a conspicuous part
of the tree to declare its intentions, 15 days before the tree is to be felled,
besides advertising in local newspapers. The rule states: ``Adequate public
notice shall be given by the Tree Officer by advertising in local newspapers as
well as by affixing a notice on a conspicuous part of the tree that is required
to be felled. Thereafter, the Tree Authority may give permission with or
without conditions or refuse it within a period of 60 days from the date of
receipt of the application. However, no tree shall be felled until 15 days
after such permission is given.''
However, when Niranjan Upasni, one
of the members of the Pune Tree Watch, who resides around Pune-Nagar Road saw
some trees being marked and a notice put up on one of the trees stating that
citizens should file objections by April 19 (the notice had been put up on
April 18 – just a day earlier, instead of 15 days earlier), when he was passing
by this regular route.
Upasni, along with other members,
conducted a spot survey and filed in the objections. These read as follows: the
notice and the docket do not give clear information on which trees are
specifically slated for cutting, pruning or for transplant; small trees have
been completely left out from the total count of trees and these number 50;
more than 26 species of birds and small mammals like squirrels and bats are
using the trees for nesting and roosting and hence transplanting activity
should be carried keeping this in mind and; as far as possible, local species
and fruiting trees should be saved.
The result? During the hearing, the
PMC's garden superintendent Yashwant Khaire agreed for a joint inspection of
the site, which will take place shortly. Says Upasni, ``Out of these 585 trees,
the PMC plans to save some of them by transplanting. We have suggested that
they be transplanted at the jogging park and around water tanks in Viman
Nagar.''
Such kind of vigilance has helped
in curtailing indiscriminate felling for development purposes. Giving more such
examples, Balasinorwala says that, ``In Ghorpadi, three stalwart trees about
100-150 years old were given a clearance for felling at a construction site. We
inspected the site and objected to their felling since they did not come in the
way of construction. PMC agreed to leave them alone. Along the Loni-Hadapsar
Road, out of the 200 odd trees, 26 of them were saved. Thanks to Ravindra
Latey, a resident of Kothrud, the 100 trees that were slated to be felled to
facilitate road widening under the IRDP project were minimized to 30 odd
trees.''
There have been many disappointment
too, wherein despite their objections, trees have been felled. But says
Balsinorwala, ``At least, there is a change in the attitude of the PMC.''
However, says Vinod Jain, there is still a long way to go. ``The maximum tree
felling takes place on Sundays, since the office of the garden superintendent
is closed, so citizen cannot register their complaints. The contractor, who is
felling the tree, is required to have a challan showing the number of trees
that have been given permission to be felled. This is hardly adhered to. Many a
time, if permission is given for three trees, you will find that 10 of them are
chopped off. In several cases, if only a branch has been given permission for
cutting, the entire tree is chopped off. As for the Tree Authority members
whose duty is to conserve trees in the city in various ways and by all means,
they are only interested in free jaunts under the garb of study tours.''
The website – www.punetreewatch.org
has helped in providing a platform for citizens who have observed tree felling
in their neighbourhood and can post observations and complaints here. In fact,
citizens are encouraged to lodge objections. (see Box I).
While there is a long way to go, to
understand the need to preserve as many trees for that vital eological balance,
a recent urban forestry initiative workshop held in Pune which involved former
forest officials and citizen activists, several recommendations have been made
to strengthen Pune's tree cover. (see Box II).
BOX I
If you observe tree felling in your
neighbourhood then here's how you can get into action:
- If
permission has been given, ask for the challan from the people who are
felling trees..
- Get
the work stopped immediately by calling up Garden Superintendent Y S
Khaire on the following numbers: 25538553 and 98230-73622 in case they do
not have a valid challan.
- Contact
Pune Tree Watch's area wise representatives: Kalyaninagar-Niranjan
Upasni-94230-01779; Aundh-Samir Dhume-2588 5526; Shivajinagar-Shantha
Bhushan-2567 7896; Kothrud-Saili Palandale-2539 0672; Sinhagad
Road-Sourabh Phadke-2435 6446; Deccan-Somesh Gite-93736 79591;
Erandwane-Parag Juvekar-98228 93977; Kondhwa-Tasneem-98509 18042; Boat
Club Road-Feroza Saran-2613 6794 and; Downtown-Vinod Jain-94223 05735.
- Mail
to tasul@vsnl.net
so that an alert can be put on the website and facilitate a follow-up.
BOX II
Recommendations at the urban
forestry workshop:
- Census
of trees has not been done from 1996 and hence should be done immediately
and every five years thereafter
- Trees
with bird nesting colonies should not be granted felling permissions, till
such time that the young birds leave the trees
- Tree
planted in lieu of tree felling by builders and individuals should be
monitored by the PMC every four months
- Rare
and endangered plants should be saved from felling, if needed by changing
the building plan
- For
every ward in the PMC, honorary tree guardians should be appointed
- Police
officers should be empowered to stop unauthorized felling of trees
