Minutes of the meeting on the 1st of April'06, Bund Garden
Harsh Magon, Niranjan Upasani, Dwark Ethiraj, Satish Khot, Gita Vir, Sheila Christian, Tasneem B, Vinod Jain, Shantha Bhushan, Mala Rihan, Naheed Khan, Feroza Saran, Viraj Shah and Nandini
Guests: Fatima Al-Talib, Dakshu Mansukhani, Mr Lobo, Mr Khaire , Ghorpade and Pandit. The latter 4 joined in 45 minutes later.
1. After the quick round of introduction, Vinod was given time to speak as he is not on email discussions. He updated the group on the need to have a proper form of public notice (the one in use is using paint which is quite confusing). He also spoke on the Pune University road felling, the various contradictions and irregularities involved.
Action point *At the end of the meeting we were to draft a letter to the Municipal commissioner strongly objecting to the current form of Public Notice, and urging them to paste paper notices for the same. (This did not happen as Mr Khaire later said the issue was taken care of)
2. The need to access the municipal commissioner was discussed. Whereby the National Society for Clean Cities (NSCC) members Satish, Gita and Dwarak said they would help open up spaces for the same. One way was that members of PTW join Mohalla committees in their respective areas and attend the monthly meetings of the NSCC. At the upcoming meeting a 5-6 minute presentation on Pune Tree Watch is being planned. Monthly meetings with the ward officer will also help in highlighting the issue.
3. Harsh suggested the need to sensitize people living in the vicinity and create awareness. And involve them to save the green of their area. He also suggested that members should also help with the work by making donations.
4. Vinod pointed out that only taller trees can survive against the city's pressures. Therefore taller trees (6-8 ft) only should be planted. Also the supply of tree guards and water tankers were
5. Niranjan presented the campaign against felling of trees from a non-human living being approach i.e ecologically. He also updated the group on the Vimanagar road widening issue and presented pictures whereby roads were widened at the cost of felling trees, were now mis
6. Mr Khaire pointed out that only Dr. Nitin Kareer, Chairman of the Pune Tree Authority has the power to save the trees on the University. But the problem is, as pointed out was that he is not easily accessible.
7. Mrs. Mala
Rihan pointed out that the wood of one tree approximately costs Rs.40, 000, and
hence there is greater motive to cut trees than to preserve them
8. Feroza gave an update on
how the mall, Pune Central does not have a single tree whereby 12 (?) babool
trees were cut during construction work. Mr. Mr
Khaire suggested that we make an
application to Dr. Nitin Kareer to compulsorily keep the periphery area around
shopping malls for tree plantation.
9. At that moment Mr Khaire also joined the meeting and the Pune Central case was put to him. He mentioned that the development rules need to be changes. When Tasneem questioned him further on the need for the site to get a no-objection certificate from the Garden Dept. after a visit to
10. On FSI violations, Mr Khaire said that these could be reported to the city engineer.
11. Satish suggested that Pune Tree Watch should take this issue with the development plans. There is a meeting on the 15th and he asked some of us members to attend this.
12. Mr Khaire said that there is too much focus on IT and malls.
13. Satish
requested that all Pune Tree Watch Members to attend the meeting on 15th
April (10 am to 2 pm) at the Pune Municipal Corporation which is going to
present the future development plan of Pune.
15. On being questioned by Tasneem on the new board of Pune Tree Authority (PTA). Mr Khaire said that this will happen in March'07 as the PTA is elected every five years. He said that he would help us when this happens.
16. When the question of tree census was asked by Feroza and Mala Rihan, he mentioned that work is undergoing and this is happening alongside with the property census. Also wherever members see inadequate number of trees, they should report these instances to the
17. On the question by Tasneem as to within how many days after permission for felling trees should the work happen. Mr Khaire said that for private tree owners it was a time period of 90 days. But this was not applicable to public trees. (this was raised with reference to the university road work, as the permission to cut the trees was on the 25th jan'04, and therefore way past the deadline).
18. On tree guards and water tankers he said that each tree guard cost Rs 500/-, it is usually prone to getting stolen. So in the future they would plant trees that do not require tree guards. Harsh, stated that tree guards are required certain places. So Mr Khaire did say that these would be looked at a case to case basis. Water Tankers, he said are 9 in number.
19. Satish said that a green strip around all buildings should be made compulsory for percolation of water.
20. The Jawahar Hotel case that Vinod Jain pointed to him would be looked at. The hotel has applied for permission to fell trees to making parking space whereas there is a basement parking already available.
21. Mr Khaire mentioned that Pune Tree Watch and the Garden dept could jointly organize awareness programs and therefore has asked us to make suitable proposals for the same.
22. On Niranjan `s suggestion Mr Khaire said that they could issue I-cards to Pune Tree Watch members to facilitate members when they visit sites. Action Point * Tasneem to draft a proposal for the same.
23. Returning to our point on appropriate public notice, Mr Khaire said that paper notices have been printed for the same.
24. On road-side plantations, Harsh spoke about the Salunke Vihar Rd and the need to engage with shopkeeper and people to take care of them. Dwarak presented the attempt by the Mohalla committee of Salunke Vihar to plant trees. Mr Khaire said that in Pune, trees can be planted
25. The “Docket” has still not been put up on the official website of the PMC as promised.
26. Mr Khaire confirmed that they just before
the monsoons, they would undertake tree plantation with full grown trees to
replace the ones that are not growing on North Main Road Koregaon Park , Pune
411 001 to make up for the giant Banyan Trees which were cut down.
