The Bombay high court (HC)-constituted tree committee asked the Mumbai Metropolitan Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) to ensure that the survival rate of the trees which would be transplanted for Metro projects could be improved.
The panel also directed the corporation to ask the horticulturist from Singapore, Rick Thomas, who has been advising them on the transplantation since the beginning of the Metro project, to be present in the next meeting on December 5.
The committee, during a meeting with the MMRCL, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and environmental activists on Thursday, sought the presence of the horticulturist, after it was informed that more than 50% of more than 1,600 trees transplanted from south Mumbai to Aarey for Metro projects had withered and died.
Justice AA Sayed who presided over the meeting, stressed on the need to increase the city’s tree cover.
Environmentalists, including Zoru Bathena and Kunal Birwadkar, reiterated that the survival rate of transplanted trees was abysmally low and the authorities were not addressing the issue. “Pruning of trees which have to be transplanted left only a stump, owing to which the transplantation was unsuccessful,” Bathena said.
He said it was important to get experts on board to give suggestions on the best practices to be taken for survival of future transplants, as MMRCL had sought permission to transplant 3,000 more trees.
{{/usCountry}}He said it was important to get experts on board to give suggestions on the best practices to be taken for survival of future transplants, as MMRCL had sought permission to transplant 3,000 more trees.
{{/usCountry}}However, MMRCL’s advocate AG Mattos said the situation was not as bad. He further submitted that the activists were not dwelling on the replantation scheme of the MMRCL. “The June report by the panel stated that some of the trees construed to be dying had started flowering,” said Mattos.