December '06

Lullanagar

Early on 27th morning at around 7.30, the caretaker of the plot had started hacking away at a stump of an old (dead) tree. On questioning him, Zenobia learned that 2 of the four trees were to be cut & supposedly transplanted. Zenobia, contacted Mr.Ghorpade who in turn sent Mr.Jagtap for a site visit.( abt 10 min before Mr. Jagtap arrived the cactus tree was cut down). Mr.Jagtap informed her that the cactus tree didn't qualify but he assured that the other four trees are already in next months docket. He gave further warning to the caretakers wife that no other trees were to be touched & assured me the the builder would not get clearance if a single tree were to be cut without permission being granted. Mr. Ghorpade confirmed the same saying that a report would be filed as he had spoken to Jagtap & he would take up the matter with the builder again.

Boat Club Road
A  builder has asked for and been given permission to cut down 3 trees on No.1 Boat Club Road.  Feroza reports that he has cut down more than 25 trees according to Gita Vir.  The garden department has informed that that these trees are going to be "transplanted" somewhere in Kondhwa. On 30th Nov visited Garden Dept. and they said that Mr. Pandit had not submitted the report to them.  On 7th Dec. when Anchal called Mr. Yadav and subsequently forwarded the matter with Ghorpade to follow this up. When Anchal visited the office she pushed for the report. After some days Feroza received a telephone call from Mr. Pandit from the Garden Department, Dhole Patil Road ward office, stating that he has made a report to the Garden Department regarding 18 trees having been illegal cut on No.1 Boat Club Road Plot.  The procedure is that the Garden Department has already sent a show cause notice to the builder, and are now awaiting his reply.  After they receive his reply, the Tree Authority will decide what further action to take against the builder.


Shastri Nagar road

In the month’s docket there was an application to felling for 54 trees to accommodate storm water drainage at the Shastri Nagar road (near alaka chowk; see docket index no. 111), the group along with some other citizens had raised objections to the application stating that there is a scope to make design changes. We requested a joint site inspection for the same with the Road department and the garden department. Prasad Latkar, town planner and member of Srushti helped suggested the looping method to save the trees. Vinod Jain informed this morning that a joint site inspection was done and only 4 or 5 trees of the said site will be removed and the rest( and beautiful) trees will be spared. They have recommended a zig-zag construction of the storm water drain, which has been accepted. Vandana Chavan the ex-mayor and a member of the Pune Tree Authority also played an active role in making this happen as she also stays in the said area. Subsequently site was visited by Anchal Sondhi along and complaint to the effect was lodged.


Akashwani
The trees opposite Akashwani which were saved by Pune Tree Watch last year came under the axe. Vinod and Shantha had  made  site visit and given our suggestions. Unfortunately only the Ashoka (mast tree), one small mango and two more trees are to be transplanted in the campus itself or near  LIC. The pavement is only 6 feet wide and cannot accommodate too many trees. We were alerted by Rahul Deo when the trees were being axed, so Shantha and Anchal visited the area. Mr. Ghorpade assured that only those trees that cannot be saved are to go and the rest would to be transplanted. We suggested that new trees further should be planted in the road divider, so as to maintain green cover in that spot itself. This is a very busy junction and needs all the green cover.

November' 06

A) The has designed the Additional Municipal commissioner to chair the meeting of PTA.

B) He has asked us to come up with a set of criteria for the selection of the co-opted members of the next Pune Tree Authority.

C) He will direct the Garden department to give adequate notice to public about tree cutting applications. 

D) He also said the amendment of the Maharashtra Tree act was on the card soon and we should give inputs to concerned agencies immediately. He said he would give us more details on this.  Till that time he has mentioned that we could put together rules under the Tree Act and give it to him. He said that we could take this on one step at a time.

E) He mentioned that there is a rule that no construction will be allowed 1.5 mtrs along the boundary wall of any land. He said this rule is for saving and tree plantations. He also said that he would give us a copy of that rule.  (see

 

Balbharati Paud Road

In Pune there is an ongoing conflict on the construction of a new road on a forested hill called the Law College Hill or Vetal tekdi  (see also blog http://rescuepune.blogspot.com.). 

The area in question is an ecological hotspot for Pune's Urban Environment  and there are many studies that report good biodiversity and ecological value.  This  has been going on for a long time now but things are getting serious each day as trees are getting cut at a very fast pace to clear the area for the roads. The 'forests' on the Law College Hill qualify as forests as per the interpretation of the Honourable Supreme Court and any claim by PMC that they do not need clearance under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, is in contravention of the orders of the Supreme Court.

Clearly  the ongoing tree felling on Law College Hill by the PMC for construction of the Paud Phata - Balbharti road is in violation of Supreme Court orders dated 12th December, 1996 in the Writ Petition (Civil) No. 202 of 1995  (T.N. Godavarman Vs Union of India) and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.A number of environmentally conscious groups and individuals are fighting this against the PMC (Pune municipal Corporation). All pleas, signatures and arguments are falling on deaf ears... there is a strong political (and an alleged builders) lobby backing this road and many citizens are also supporting it. There have been attempts to create an awareness with Puneites, politicians and authorities about the fallouts of the construction of this road but that is not yielding the desired results. This has been petitioned at the lower end courts like the PMC and the district court but there has not been much of a headway there so now these groups are planning to approach the high court.  To initiate stronger action Kalpavriksh has written a letter to the Central Empowered Committee on the Balbharati Paud rd issue.  The CEC has been appointed by the Supreme Court to look at forest based issues.  The CEC has  sent a letter to the Chief Secretary, Maharashtra, directing them to institute an enquiry and send them a report in response to our letter on the Paud Phata - Balbharti road. They have asked them to ensure that no construction work is carried out in deemed forest as per SC orders and the FCA.(see pdf file). Despite receiving copies of the CEC directive the work on the Balbharati continued. To mount public pressure needs to mount on them we asked members of Pune Tree Watch and other concerned citizens to fax to the commisssioner a letter (see attached) asking him to stop the work.

Her letter to our group says –

“University Hill is famous for its beauty and lush green trees at its foothill. On the periphery of the hill trees were planted 15 to 20 years ago by staff and students of Pune University. Next to hill there is a road known as Vaikunth Mehta Institute Rd. Vaikunth Metha Institute authorities have decided to build a high wall at the foot of the hill just to demarcate the boundary from the university though natural demarcation is already there. To build this wall forty (40) full grown healthy trees were uprooted with a bull dozer one day. “

“This was reported to garden dept.  by the residents of ICS colony and Bhosale Nagar. The inspector from dept. visited the site and made his report which said that thirty (30) full grown of various species had been felled unnecessarily and without permission. The perpetrators were to be fined at the rate of Rs 5000/- per tree which amounted to one lac and fifty thousand rupees (1,50,000/-)”

“According to my information till date the fine has not been paid. And perhaps some sort of compromise is being worked out. The reporting citizens want action to be taken and construction of wall be stopped.”

On 18th Nov the construction of the wall was still on,  next to the barbed wire. There are number of healthy assorted trees about  5-6 ft in the university side, and have been planted by Mr. Upadhyay and his close friends. They go for walk there every day carrying water bottles for watering. When Pune Tree Watch later checked with Mr. Jag Jhap of the garden dept. ,  he said letter asking for fine of Rs 1,50,000/- has been sent. There has been no response from them. 

October'06

Akurdi tree felling case - in front of Ford Motors and adjacent to Bajaj Auto

Anchal Sondi reports that she and Reena Jinwala visited the road widening site at Akurdi on 29th sept. friday along with PCMC garden incharge and got details of the project. After which they met the Garden Supritendent Mr. S.P. Salunke at the garden office of PCMC and  proposed that the trees to be cut in near of Ford Motors & Bajaj Auto be planted in the neighbouring area only. They also
asked Bajaj Auto if they plant some trees inside the boundary of Ford Motors & Bajaj Auto and look after them.

Anchal says that in some areas they have designed some road dividers in such a way that a 3 lane rd has divider between the 2 + 1 and old tall big trees are saved in divider at least one side and on other side of 3 way they have replanted  trees along the border keeping in mind drain water electrical cables and telephone wires etc. As there are a series of juctions from Nigdi to Dapodi saving trees will be tough. But where they have running length the garden dept of the PCMC has committed to saving the trees. .

 
Anchal credits their detail work process though they did not show Anchal and Reena the permission letter of these trees which were cut in fornt of mentioned site.

Raj Bhavan

Ashwin Lulla writes on 13th Oct’06  that  a very old Banyan tree which has been removed from its roots from its location outside Raj Bhavan and is lying just there. The tree has been uprooted for the sake of Road widening. The tree is still living as there are leaves on it.

Would there be any volunteers interested in helping me to replant the tree. I have been talking to the tree authority officer at P.M.C.

 

Karve nagar, Bibwewadi and Salisbury Park

Tasneem  received three alerts on the 16th of October from Karve nagar, Bibwewadi and Salisbury Park. The Salisbury Park and the Karve Nagar issue were so similar wherein the two pune citizens who called saying how upset they were when the trees that they planted 20-30 years ago were brutally (and some fatally) pruned according to the whims of the contractors and some of the other residents. Tasneem had asked them to contact Ghorpade and Jagjhap and to make sure they do an assessment of the kind of mindless pruning that is happening by contractors and others. 

The Bibwewadi incident was reported by another nature lover who is also into environmental managament and is also willing to join our group and share his knowledge and experience.  He himself got alerted when a tamarind tree's branch was cut off and fell with a thud. He then realised that they had similarly cut 6 trees. There was no permission taken and he contacted the garden dept (Ghorpade). The Garden Dept.  has seized the intruments and  said that they will take a necessary course of action. Tasneem has asked him to do an intense follow-up with the authorities to make sure that the fines are paid. Otherwise after the first notice gets issued the whole thing sits still.

All of the complainants spoke of the lack of interest, care and support from other neighbours and how they thought that Pune Tree Watch was a good support system and our suggestions were valuable.

Boat Club Road

Feroza had gone on a site visit with Mr. Pandit and Mr. Ghodpade to 1 Boat Club road, where permission was sought to cut only 3 trees, and that was given to the builder. However she was horrified to see (from Behind Pune Central Mall) that the builder has made a huge excavation and cut off all the trees in that area.  According to her Builders will happily pay a fine in thousands, for the trees, as they will earn in lakhs and crores from the buildings. Unless they are subject to imprisonment, things will go from bad to worse.  Who will bell the cat?

Fergusson College Road 

We were alerted by a resident, Rohan, of  Madhuban Apartments on F.C Road where there has been tree felling in last few days. On asking them if they had permission for the same they said that they had taken it from PMC and PMC has readily granted them saying if people in building have problem then they can cut it.
However he feels feel the reason for cutting major portions of tree is not logical.The reason they have given is there aren’t enough parking spaces which to him sounds ridiculous. He asks how can we now take action against people who have initiated this action and also against people who have granted the permissions ?

September '06

Nucleus Mall

Pune Tree Watch is requesting that the construction and paving of a huge space (shown in red), beyond the footpath,  for parking be used instead as a green space with trees and a long garden, benches, play for children etc.  They have made pits for 15 trees, some of which they were trying to fill up with trash and cement block. We also felt that there is no need for parking as (a) there was never parking along that road and (b) the nucleus mall has a huge parking facility.

Pune Tree Watch met  Mr Waghmare, the city engineer. He said that it would be possible to have a green space/long garden of sorts and he would get in touch with Vascon builders for the same. Waghmare mentioned that it was communicated to them and Mr Taware, who is the manager of the mall is to look into it. Mr Taware said that they had an initital plan to put a garden there but it was the municipal corporation to suggest the road. He said he would be able to start work once he gets a written conformation from the PMC for the same otherwise they would be likely to run into all kinds of situations. Vascon Engineering was also contacted but they has been no response (see our email to them ). Pune Tree Watch needs help from architects and town planners to follow-up on this. Contact tasul@vsnl.net if you would like to help

Efforts to meet up with Waghmare are wasted. In a recent conversation he mentioned that this area does not belong to the PMC.  Mr Khaire, the garden superintendent however has extended support to our idea. He said he would help in procurring the necessary details.

Boat Club Road
Roda Mehta, a member of Pune Tree Watch reported that 5 plots of 8430 sq. ft. each in Riverside Estate on Boat Club Road have pulled down bungalows with lovely old trees cut to accommodate condominiums, paved with tiles or concrete for parking. Not a single tree has been sown as far as she can tell. The builders of 2+1 (to be built) plot is Marvel Realtors, 1 is Nishit Sapre of Escee Builders, and the 5th is a Bombay jeweler.

August '06

Pune University
We were alerted that the Pune university is extending the library building where stands an old Banyan tree ( at least 50 years old , possibly more) . The
building is supposed to be 5 story ( 3 in initial stage. The location
makes it clear that eventually the tree will be lost!.) The university could have avoided this by having the building leaving  sufficient space. After all we are not short of space. The work had already started and a few branches and roots too have been axed. With inputs from Pune Tree Watch. He and others have made a draft , taking signatures of people here andto send it to Vice Chancellor's office. Theyhave suggested to transfer the Banayan tree to some other suitable place,
and this work get done from experts from PMC or any other organisation. They feel that the tree will not be able to survive if it is very close to the new library extension. and so the transfer!.

In october he informed us that  the Banyan tree is still there. The experts say that there will be no harm to the tree.

July '06

Kothrud
Santosh Visal (now a member of Pune Tree Watch) objected to the request made by his society’s members to PMC to cut the banyan tree within the premises. This tree is around 8 years old and about 25 to 30 feet away from the face of the building

He says that he personally worships this tree and there are many others who worship too. When people came to cut the tree he drove them away. They did not have PMC permission, but one of our member told that he had been requested by the committee members to pursue PMC to cut the banyan tree. After the intervention on Pune Tree Watch and Santosh the tree was saved!

Balbharati - Paud road

Many environmentalist groups and individuals are protesting against the contruction of a 2.8 km by 100 feet road passing through the densely vegetated hills of Law College. The construction of the road is opposed on various grounds such as the violation of the Forest Conservation Act 1980, Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and the BPMC ( bombay provincial municipal corporations) Act 1949.
The basic contention is that these hills are the last remaining green areas of Pune and that the problem of transport and traffic needs to be dealt with, keeping a long term vision in mind. Building of more roads is not a solution and definitely not at the cost of Puneites environment and their only refuge for a green haven.  Pune Tree Watch has through the  Maharashtra Tree Act on many occassions delayed the start of the work.

Morwada Nalla 

After an initial meeting with Mr Jayant (garden dept, PCB) and Sunil (Landscape consultant for the PCB) members of Pune Tree Watch, Anchal Sondhi and Tasneem decided to go for a site inspection to the areas that the PCB intends to beautify.  The first section as mentioned in this report prepared by Anchal (see picture)  is located in the heart of the city (near St Mary's church) and is unbelieavably beautiful and relatively untouced. The PCB has plans to develop it as a commercial nature spot with a jogger's track, food court, playground, lawns etc.. We have so far shown dissaproval to this and stated that such a beautification plan will lead to the degradation of this beautiful location. Please see the pic below.                      

 

Oikos has given us concrete suggestions to beautify this area without transforming the landscape drastically yet further enhancing it. To see the report and the recommendations write to tasul@vsnl.net


June '06


Mangaldas Road

Following an email from a resident of this society - "It is intimated that approx 21 trees were cut on 28 Jun 06 in Neeta Terrace Cooperative Society 2 Mangaldas Rd, Near Tata Mgt Training Centre ,Pune 411001. The trees were cut by the railway staff who are resposible for keeping the tracks clear. In the past the staff have been prunning the branches This is for your information & action." - The garden dept. was immediately informed, and they inspected the site, and have given a notice to the central railway authorities.

Construction Site for Parking near the Pune Railway Station

On the 23rd of June Vinod and Tasneem were on a joint site visit with the garden dept. near the Pune Railway station where a multi-storeyed parking area is being developed. They went there to inspect the status of trees.  They were also joined by one of the politician PTA member. After much discussion it was decided that the trees that will be up for felling will be marked at "C" and the ones for transplantation will have "T". That way atleast the contractor will not cut more than permitted (which is a common 'error').  Another aspect that came up at this visit was that a colony of fire brigade personnel's was being evicted to make way for vehicles to park themselves. These are or were rent free apartments provided to them. Some of the family's were living there for 'generations'; some were encroachers (in the sense they retired but continued to live there) and now had nowhere to go; some were threatened softly - move now to this location ('yerwada and such places') or you will be without any house. None of the people were happy about moving out. 'We risk our lives for the people and this is what we get in return' is what they told us. 

They are a small group of people against a mighty bunch of land grabbers and for what purpose- Parking cars!!!!.  The  fundamental issue here is that vital habitation of human beings and even trees is being made way for inanimate objects like cars?!. This means that we really need to look at our crazy transport and traffic situation. There have to be other ways of solving problems; making more place for parking, more roads... This simply tilts the scale more and more creating conflict and a ground for potential chaos.

Ghole Road: Caught Red handed

Somesh Gite caught illegal cutting of trees on ghole road. The permission was to transplant the trees (5 ashoka and 1 mango) but except for 1 ashoka other trees were chopped off from the base before he could  reach there.  The explanation from the wood-cutter was that the trees cannot be transplanted and he had talked aboutt it with a tree authority member (Mr Y.B). Somesh called the garden officer and the tools were seized. The officer also assured him  that notices will be issued to the wood-cutter & the contractor. What talks were held between the wood-cutter and the tree authority member,which neglected the decision by the whole tree authority is really a question. one thing Somesh wants to bring to notice is that the cost of transplantation would have been much more than the fine for illegally cutting down the trees. So who cares to transplant big trees which costs rs 10000/- or more depending on the size of the tree. Instead cut down the
tree sell the wood and pay the fine rs 5000/-. and one may also get
some money after paying the fine; thats so simple. This needs to taken-up this issue in the next tree authority


Mangaldas Road Tree Felling
A resident of Mangaldas Road complained when a tree was being cut illegally by a new constructuion. The construction is for the Pune Version of the Palm Grove Hotel. Inspite of her asking them to show the permission, and asking them to stop:they wiped out the tree in a matter of 'minutes'. The site has been bulldozed, packed and sealed well.

This incident happened on Friday, and Tasneem has been in touch with her and Ghorpade for the same. Apparently the site people are asking her not to file any complaint and that they will plant many Palm Trees as a compensation (next thing they will be saying is that they will bring fresh air from the HImalayas!). This is being  followed us with Ghorpade (garden dept.) who says that the Panchnaama will happen on monday and that they will ask them to plant the same species.


May 2006

Trees on the International Convention Centre, Senapati Bapat Rd.

Two dockets ago members of Pune Tree Watch and Kalpavriksh (Shantha Bhushan, Sujatha and Neema had objected to cutting a row of trees at the International Convention Centre. These trees would 'need' to be cut to make way for a podium (entry for service vehicles) and put in a storm water drainage. These members have ever since contacted the architect Sameer Walimbe who has been so far non-conclusive on the whole issue. When one such joint site visit was arranged with Khaire, again neither him not an appropriate engineer/architect came and Khaire said that this application will be rejected; If they want to cut the trees then they will need to apply again. This rejection letter was not given though. This issue was also discussed with the City Engineer, Mr Waghmare and he has kindly put in a word with the builder and the architect. As of 15th May we were told by the architect that the trees will be saved and that he would send a letter to Khaire withdrawing the felling application.


April 2006

Prashant Bhole, "a tree lover", sends a mail saying that "There is road widening work in progress from Pimpri to Nigdi. Between Akurdi chowk to Nigdi Chowk there are 99% chances of cutting those trees by Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). because those big trees are coming almost in their way."


Golf Course

Milind Kadam sends these images to us and says that
"following are the photographs taken by me on my cell.these tree were located on the sides of the footpath.they were not  obstructing any traffic,or were hindarance to the public.many tree were cut just to give a proper look for the gold course ,which started night golf.how ridicules.!Pune people are facing the power cuts any time of the day.the club may be paying the price but why the MSEB should supply the power to this golf club.?"

Nagar Road

Pune Tree Watch, led by Niranjan Upasani raised objections on tree cutting and transplanting on the IRDP Nagar rd in the March’06 docket. Some of the main grounds for objecting were inadequate information and notices; a huge number of small trees getting left out; more that 26 species of birds and small mammals like the Squirrel and Bats using the trees for nesting and roosting; inconsistency in the action to be taken for the same  tree species; involvement of the forest department.

When the Pune Tree Authority public hearing was held on the 21st  of April’06, a joint site visit with the garden department, to the spot was decided. It happened on the 26th and the outcomes of the site visit are as follows.

• Cutting the exotic trees that were in the Plantation zone of the road and transplanting the native trees in their place that were marked to be permanently cut (Around 50 neem trees were to be permanently cut). Mr. Khaire agreed to that and instructed Mr. Ghorpade (from the garden dept.) to work along with the Pune Tree Watch members.

• He also agreed to transplant some trees in the Viman Nagar Joggers park and the land owned by the PMC near the water tanks in Viman Nagar.

Niranjan will begin work in close co-ordination with Ghorpade.

March 2006

Alandi road  widening
Two citizens have brought to the notice of the group  that a large number of trees (most of which are old and big) are being cut down on Alandi Road in Vishrantwadi area, near Mental corner and Vishrantwadi Police Station. The reason appears to be the same-road widening. There is a plan to cut down few more trees on Tingre Nagar Road. There are no notices on the trees.

Shivajinagar colony
A resident of this area wrote to the group that  considerable activity is going on to accommodate their valued customers at the mega store   Pyramid which has started on SB Road. There were four Ashok fully grown trees in front of the store . On 13th   March ; some one started to cut down all the branches  leaving only stumps.  Shantha has visited the site and says that this will be followed up by the resident who raised the alert, with the garden dept..


Feb 2006

Boat Club Road
This alert is from Feroza Saran. Two trees were being cut at the lane opposite to the Max Mueller bhavan.  Two trees were being cut one is a Gulmohur and the other a Seesam (each 25-30 years old). The garden dept. in-charge said the trees were getting pruned only but stated that the water dept wanted to lay a drainage line which will anyways result in the trees getting cut.  He has requested the PTW members to do a site visit as soon as possible and submit their objections/suggestions for the same.Though he said that these trees will be transplanted and gave the name of the locations. A letter of objection has been submitted by Feroza to the garden dept. The gulmohur tree however was reported to have fallen down a few days later and was removed by the fire brigade. Vinod Jain has also helped in following this up. Both the trees have been removed but in its place it has been ensured that six saplings have been planted.


Vimanagar
Please see the report on tree killing and pruning by Konark Nagar society in Viman Nagar by Niranjan Upasani.

Loni, Hadapsar
On the 10th Of Feb, after receiving a call from someone Vinodji, Somesh, Sourabh, Ajay Vaishmpayam and Junejaji visited the Hadapsar - Loni site where huge trees were being sacrificed (yet again!) for road widening. . After the Pune Tree Watch meeting on the 11th, the gathered members headed to see the site themselves. The only emotion was profound sadness to see HUGE and IMPOSING trees being chopped down in the name of development. Air, water, trees, birds, climate however important for human development is never mandated under today's so called development aspect. Since the work was within the Forest Dept jurisdiction, we made frenzied  efforts to contact the Forest Authorities. On the 13th some of us met Ashok Khadse and he assured us that we would conduct a joint site visit to figure out which trees can be saved, and where the design changes could be asked for. Vinodji has got a written statement stating that no work will continue till the joint site visit. To see the detailed report click here...

The joint site visit did happen on the 25th of March and members were shocked to see that all the trees save a few that could be transplanted (26 in nos) were all cut down.  We contacted the highest authority of the Forest Dept. Mr Thosare, who assured us that henceforth certain precautions will be taken. He has written a letter to the PWD dept. and amongst other things requesting him that environment conscious citizens be involved in the planning process. This is a great step forward, yet how this will be implemented in the future is yet to be seen.

Jan 2006

Mangaldas road -
On the 3rd of january’06 massive tree felling was stopped by Mr Satish khot, Rajni Behl and other citizens at plot located on the junction of Mangaldas Road and Nathan Road- right next to Tata Management Centre. Mr. Pandit of PMC Gardens dept. met me and informed Satish that the builder had not received any sanction for cutting trees in that plot. He had  therefore confiscated the cutting implements from the contractor and put a stop to the cutting of the trees. But its only for now. The whole plot is full of trees - and many of them are fruit trees. If any construction has to be done there trees will have to be cut. Pandit does not know what type of building (Residential or Commercial )is coming there as the plans are not sent to Gardens Dept. However, Satish has asked him to get information. Satish has further asked the respective Ward Officer to get this information also. But whichever building comes up - trees will have to be either cut or better still replanted.

Taljai Hills
Vivek Velankar informed the group about  a serious issue at Taljai Hill . Near by slum areas people are cutting daily 50/ 60 trees from forest area. Vivek had taken shri Khadse ( Senior forest officer) along with few citizens to the spot. He was also stunned by the scene. The forest dept. now needs to make arangements to protect these trees otherwise one day Taljai hill will be baron once again.  A meeting was held at Taljai between the concerned citizens, forest dept., noted botanist Prof mahajan, Vivek and Tasneem were present.  Here it was decided that protection needs to  become more stricter.

Ravindra latey went along the Pashan Road from University circle to visit the pashan Road development where 300 plus trees will be affected. His observations are as follows - On the left side of the road, indiscriminate digging, many trees alredy dead or on the way... Horrible sight! Perfect example of insensitivity, inability to comeup with situation specific alternate plan, only lip service - saving trees.

What is going wrong :
1) The indiscriminate digging of the road has damaged the roots of many huge trees. One such tree is a huge Devrukh tree which has simply dried.
2) There are many small bridges( culverts ?) along the road, which will also need widening. No such work has yet been started ( This will infact take longest time).
3)  There is a Temple right in the widening strip of the road. I checked with the pujari of the temple. No discussion of shifting the temple.
4) There is also a huge MSEB High Tension Cable tower in the widening area. Will it be relocated? By when?
5) The huge tress are well planted - in one row - from distance of atleast 5  meters( equal to one lane of the road) from the side of the proposed road edge.
Unlike may cases, here it is very much possible to accommodate one lane on the side of the trees. Almost all large trees acan be saved by this design.

Pashan trees will be sacrificed unfortunately!!!.but The garden dept has promised to transplant as many trees as possible which is also evident from the work as of now.

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To read alerts for the year 2005 click here....