MNS chief Raj Thackeray's son meets civic chief to highlight condition of trees

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray's son Amit met municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte on Monday, seeking permission to carry out a de-infestation process on eight mealybug infested trees at the Shivaji Park area.

According to civic officials, Thackeray had proposed to purchase ladybugs, a natural predator of mealybugs, and try them out on the infested trees as a pilot project.

MNS group leader in the BMC Sandeep Deshpande said that Kunte has given a go ahead to the project.

"The process is expected to start in a week, after experts inspect the trees on Wednesday and suggest the required logistics," Deshpande said.

A presentation on the number of dying mealybug-infested rain trees was also shown to Kunte. Some of the points highlighted in the presentation included a survey carried out on 611 trees at areas in Goregaon, Malad and Andheri.

In the survey, it was found that 145 trees were found to be dead, 233 trees were found to be infected and 233 trees were found to be in a healthy condition.

The survey stated other reasons why healthy trees were dying, such as concrete roads with no open pits around trees, heavy pre-monsoon pruning of trees and everyday traffic pollution.

Sources said that after Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray, Amit Thackeray may also venture into politics soon, given that the civic elections will be held in 2017.