BMC coats bark of living trees with chemical paint; arborists say this is slow murder

The BMC has also put up LED lights on 15,000 trees along five roadways taking the G20 delegates. The environmentalists accused the civic body of hurting the trees and nocturnal fauna. The civic body has begun to colour the bark of the trees with chemical paints, days ahead of the G20 Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction meeting

Mumbai: In the name of beautification, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC’s) has started coating the bark of trees with chemical paints in the posh Juhu Tara road ahead of the second G-20 summit meeting to be held between May 23 and 25. Concerned citizens and arborists call the tree painting a slow murder.

Tree activist Zoru Bhathena took to Twitter to highlight the harmful impact of painting the trees, “Living trees cannot be painted like this. It harms and damages the trees. Painting the bark of a tree is like painting the human skin. This is not beautification. This is slow murder. Kindly remove such paint immediately.

Outraged over this so-called ‘beautification drive’ by the civic body, tree activist Zoru Bhathena took to Twitter to highlight the harmful impact of painting the trees, “Living trees cannot be painted like this. It harms and damages the trees. Painting the bark of a tree is like painting the human skin. This is not beautification. This is slow murder. Kindly remove such paint immediately.”

If this was not it, the BMC has also put up LED lights on 15,000 trees along five roadways taking the G20 delegates. The environmentalists accused the civic body of hurting the trees and nocturnal fauna. The civic body has begun to colour the bark of the trees with chemical paints, days ahead of the G20 Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction meeting.

On Juhu Tara road, six barks of healthy and living trees have already been painted in various hues irking already incensed environmentalists.

Arboriculturist Vinod Mohite said using chemical paints on living barks of trees was not at all advisable as the porosity of the bark will get damaged. “Ideally, lime and geru should be used as it acts as a prevention for infection. But chemical paints will stop absorption and the process of osmosis. It is like putting paint on the surface of the skin. If the cadmium is exposed the tree will start deteriorating and die eventually.”

Mohite added the practice of using chemical paints on trees is usually done on dead trees.

“When many rain trees in Dadar were affected by mealybugs some years back, the BMC brought life to these dead trees by turning them into street art. But painting living trees will slowly kill them,” Mohite said.

When HT contacted a civic official from the K west ward’s maintenance department on this matter, the official responded, “We have undertaken the painting work for the G -20 summit and so far, painted six trees at the cost of ₹12,000. It is temporary and we will remove it. We have a G-20 programme on May 21 and we will remove it on May 22. We have not lit up the trees because of the programme as it is scheduled for daytime.”