Matunga institutes neglect trimming trees, risk lives

Three prominent colleges and a school have made no effort to trim the hundreds of full-grown trees on their premises and this is a risk for students as well as residents in the area, activists have complained.

Nikhil Desai, an activist of AGNI, is worried about hundreds of trees in the area of Khalsa College, VGTI, Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) and Don Bosco school, located adjacent to each other in Matunga.

"None of the institutes has taken any initiative to trim the trees before the monsoon. Many are old and huge, so not trimming them in time could be dangerous," says Desai.

Only a few days ago a large tree, at the wall of VGTI campus, collapsed on the road outside, bringing down another tree along with it. "A bus stop is located near the spot where the tree collapsed. It's simply fortunate that nobody was hurt," he says.

The activist points out that branches of trees at ICT have grown so wide that they even cover the traffic signal.

"There's a similar problem at Khalsa College. In the past decade, innumerable trees have been lost here. But neither the college nor the civic authority are doing anything about it," says Desai.

Getting BMC permission to trim the trees should not be a big deal for the institutes. "Getting permission for tree trimming is a tedious process for housing societies, not so for these institutes. But sometimes even after they get the permission they do not trim the trees in time," Desai says. "Or they employ unskilled people, who do a superficial job, and save money."

"Why doesn't the BMC take up the task and send the bill to the colleges," the activist asks.

Colleges complain BMC delayed permission

Colleges admit they have neglected trimming the trees on their premises, but officials blame the BMC for delay in granting permission.

DN Raut, dean (administration), VGTI, says, "We weren't able to trim the trees as the permission came in late."

Allan D'Souza, vice-president, Khalsa College, gave a similar excuse. "The plants should be trimmed before the monsoon so they have adequate time to grow during the monsoon. We had sought the BMC's permission, but it came very late."

He said that in order to avoid legal repercussions the college preferred to hire BMC-appointed contractors for the trimming. "But what do we do if the permission comes in so late?" he says.

However, Vijay Hire, superintendent of gardens, refuted the allegations by the institutes, saying, "We will look into the matter and serve notices to the colleges if necessary."

A staffer at Don Bosco school said many trees on the campus had been trimmed recently. The authorities at ICT could not be reached for a comment.