40 rain trees dry up in Sion, BMC chops them

Residents of Sion (East) are clueless about what has gone wrong with the trees in their area. For the past three months, fully-grown rain trees, many of which are about 40-years old, have started drying up. Following this, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) staff has gone on a tree-chopping spree.

What do residents feel about it?
Residents of Sion Fort lane say they feel helpless as repeated complaints to BMC officials didn't any yield result. Swara Kamath, one such resident, said as many as 20 trees have dried up on her lane itself, along with about 40 other trees across the entire Sion area.
"It was in June that we noticed trees in our area drying up and their branches collapsing. We observed that all trees were drying up from their branches to trunks in a similar fashion," Kamath said.

Rains, BMC have made no difference
The locals initially thought that excessive heat and lack of rain were the causes, but even after two months of rains, there has been no difference in the condition of the trees.
Kamath said, "We have heard that trees, at times, are injected with poison which makes them dry. We are feeling helpless about the situation, since we are not sure if something similar has happened in our area or it is something to do with pest infection."

"The sad part is that the BMC is chopping off these trees without analysing why they are drying up at all. This now, they have chopped 15 tress," Kamath added.

Citizens' tree-plantation drive
Kamath, a member of the citizens' group Prem Sagar Seva Mandal (PSSM), informs that her group has been actively involved in planting trees around their area. "We have carried out many tree plantation drives in our area. But during the past few months, we observed that the trees we have planted are not surviving beyond a few days.

BMC seems to care two hoots
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena corporator from Mahim Virendra Tandel, who is also a member of BMC's Tree Authority, said such cases have previously been observed at the Veera Desai Road in Andheri (West), Hindu Colony and Shivaji Park in Dadar and in parts of Borivli. "The issue has been discussed in Tree Authority meetings, but so far no headway has been made in this," he admitted.
BJP corporator Dilip Patel said he has observed similar incidents in the Juhu area. "People putting up advertising banners and hoarding deliberately kill the trees by injecting poison in them, so that the trees don't cover them up," Patel said, adding that the civic body has not yet carried out an investigation into the matter.

Seeking NGO's help to ascertain cause
Tired of the tepid response from BMC, PSSM members have taken up the issue with Greenpeace India, an NGO, to ascertain the exact cause. "The NGO has assured us they would inspect the trees with a Bombay Natural History Society expert who would be analyzing the trees," Kamath said.

Vijay Hire, superintendent of gardens, rubbished claims of poison being injected into trees to kill them. "We have been studying the causes of deaths of such trees. Most of the trees have got infested by millibug, which is probably causing their death. We are in the process of treating these trees," he claimed.