The youth of the city protested against the TMC's decision to chop off, transplant, and trim over 5,147 trees for various development projects in the area.
Dismissal from the Thane Municipal Corporation's (TMC) Tree Authority in early February, did not discourage a host of youngsters to protest over what they believe in on Thursday. The youth of the city protested against the TMC's decision to chop off, transplant, and trim over 5,147 trees for various development projects in the area. They also raised objections over the functioning of the Tree Authority that failed to give an explanation to their concerns in January. The protestors called the body illegal.
More than 50 youth from Thane, Dombivli, and Kalyan along with members of the Thane Matdata Jagran Abhiyaan (TMJA) protested outside the TMC headquarters at Pachpakadi, on Thursday.
"All throughout the month of February, the TMC has granted permission to chop off, transplant, or trim 5,147 trees for the Metro construction work, Thane-Airoli link road, road widening, and other private projects," protestor Sushank Tomar (22), a resident of Upvan, Thane said. "This means, on an average, over 30,000 trees are affected every year due to various developmental projects," he added.
Tomar also heads an NGO (non-governmental organisation) called MUSE, which promotes the well-being of the environment in Thane. On February 13, he had tried to register over 700 objections against the Tree Authority's decision to chop, trim, or transplant 478 trees for the Metro project. "But, because of the sheer volume of our letters and their laziness, the civic officials made us run about and accepted only 250 letters," he said.
Thane youth are particularly irked over the civic body's apathy towards the environment and their concerns. "Even after the locals have raised objections, the TMC has not held a public hearing until date to address our doubts. Moreover, they are not following court orders that require them to name the applicant who has applied for chopping of trees for a project, disclose the need to cut trees, types of trees to be affected, or the location where they will be transplanted, and so on," he said.
Hence, tired of the TMC officials turning a deaf ear to their pleadings, they took the support of TMJA that has experienced social workers, academicians, and experts. " The TMC has asked us to wait for a week and after that, we will decide what to do," Sushank said.
On being contacted, Anuradha Babar from the TMC's Tree Authority said that whatever permissions have been given for tree cutting, chopping, or trimming is for developmental work. "We will follow the procedure. Our PRO will issue a press release in two days and clear all doubts," she said.
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