Mumbai: One week in prison for housing society secretary who cut four trees

A 60-year-old man has been sentenced to a week's imprisonment and fined Rs 2,000 for chopping four trees in his housing society. A Session's court on Saturday confirmed Sadashiv Kamble's sentencing by a lower court. The court found that Kamble only had permission to prune the overgrown branches of the trees.

An offence was registered against the Sion-resident by one Rakesh Tawade under the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Prevention of Trees Act, after he checked the permission with the assistant superintendent of Gardens.

Tawde resides in the same society, where Kamble is secretary of the housing committee. "On August 20, 2014, Kamble asked the residents to remove their vehicles to prune the branches of trees in order to avoid any mishap," said Kamble.

When the Assistant Superintendent of Gardens, tree officers, and Garden Mukadam visited the spot, they noticed that the jambul, coconut, guava and gulmohar trees had been cut to ground level, instead of being pruned as the BMC order permitted.