Dinesh Kamath's news 'Environmentalists versus NMMC' that was published in Newsband

Environmentalists versus NMMC

By Dinesh Kamath

(Above) Picture of fallen trees

NAVI MUMBAI: Environment activists were found to be disturbed by the fact that many trees got uprooted during the recent thunderstorm. They have held Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation responsible for this happening. They are not happy with the tree planting techniques adopted and choices of plants made by NMMC. They feel that the civic body should at least consult the forest department before doing any kind of planting. They accused NMMC of planting cheap quality saplings which when they grow are fragile and not strong enough. They suggested that strong trees like Peepal and Banyan be planted instead of fragile badam trees.

But the authorities of the garden department of NMMC denied that they resorted to planting low quality saplings. They said that they had enough knowledge about trees and methods of planting them and hence they were not at fault if the tress fell down in big number. During the natural disasters, even the strongest trees can get destroyed, they said.

NMMC refused to be responsible for the falling of many trees during the thunderstorms, but, however, the civic body in recent times has been promptly taking actions whenever it received any complaint regarding trees and tree-planting. For example, some residents of Nerul came to NMMC with a complaint that there was not enough space around trees at a certain place. NMMC workers were immediately sent to that spot and made to remove the sand gravels laid around the trees. As suggested by the environmental experts, NMMC has begun to leave breathing space around the roots of the trees while planting new saplings. It was owing to lack of such space that some trees in the past had fallen down, said the Environmentalist.