Dahisar resident moves Bombay High Court to save trees

"The youngest member in my family is a seven-year-old and I want him to see the trees that were planted by my grandfather 80 years ago. The trees are like our family and we want the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to not take away our fond memories," said Chaitanya Pawar, a resident of Dahisar, who has moved the Bombay High Court challenging an order passed by the Municipal Commissioner, allowing cutting down of 13 trees on Maratha Colony road.

A division bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice NM Jamdar have stayed the order for some time and directed the civic body to file its reply. Pawar said, "My grandfather had built the Pawar house in Maratha colony. Today the fourth generation of my family resides here. We want to save the trees for our future generations."

The corporation has proposed road widening and wants to hack 13 trees which the Pawar's claims are not coming in the way of traffic. The application filed by Pawar reads "It is the statutory duty of the corporation to preserve, protect and enhance the tree cover in Mumbai. If any tree is genuinely coming in way of traffic, the civic body is empowered to transplant such trees, but not these."

Chaitanya's grandfather Tatoba Jivaji Pawar had constructed the house and planted those trees around 80-years ago. A few years back, they redeveloped their property from a ground floor structure to a two storey house and handed over a portion of the property to the corporation for road widening. Pawar said, "Two of the trees are within my property while the rest are adjacent to my plot. These trees can surely be protected."

The plea seeks directions to stay the implementation of the Municipal Commissioners order dated January 25 and appoint an expert committee to examine the trees/area and submit a report.