Protests fail to save healthy trees

On Thursday morning, when a labourer, acting on the BMC’s instructions, arrived to chop down five trees outside the ITC Grand Central Hotel, on Dr Shirodkar Road at Parel, the residents of the area were waiting to stage a protest. 

They were, however, challenged by tree officials from the F-south ward, who tried to lodge a police complaint against them. The trees were finally felled amidst much commotion.

“Officials tried to stop us from protesting and threatened us with a police complaint for obstructing them from performing their duty. But if they had sincerely done their duty, they would not be cutting trees based on permission given to them almost two-and-half years ago,” said a resident from the area.

Another resident, Ratnakar Pawar, who visited the police station after threats were issued against the group, said he would demand an inquiry into the entire incident and take up the issue with a higher authority.

“If permissions were issued in 2009, why did it take so long for the civic officials to cut the trees? The trees were absolutely okay even when permissions were given on the pretext that they were dead and dangerous. We have been protesting for the past three years in order to save the trees, but our appeals have fallen on deaf ears. The trees were slowly put to death in due course, and finally chopped off today,” said Pawar, a resident of the area for 45 years.

“It’s obvious there is something fishy going on. We have been seeing these trees since our childhood. And all of a sudden, they are declared dead and dangerous just because they are coming in the way of a particular commercial establishment,” added Pawar.

Officials of the gardens department of F-south ward argued that there were technical glitches, which is why the trees could not be cut earlier in 2009. Although they had no response to whether the trees were dead in 2009 itself, they said that a tree officer had inspected the trees before they were hacked down, and were weak and dead at the time.