Trees hacked in the name of pruning at Masjid Moth
A lush green cover in south Delhi’s Masjid Moth has suddenly been rendered barren. While huge sections of trees in the area are being hacked, agencies of the Delhi government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s horticulture department are clueless about who is chopping the trees off. Shaswati Das reports.
A lush green cover in south Delhi’s Masjid Moth has suddenly been rendered barren. While huge sections of trees in the area are being hacked, agencies of the Delhi government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s horticulture department are clueless about who is chopping the trees off.
The Delhi government’s forest department claims that no agency had sought their permission to “prune” the trees.
“We don’t know if the permission had been issued by the forest department or not. As far as we know, it was not sanctioned by us. We will probe into the matter,” said a Delhi government’s forest department official. MCD’s horticulture department said that they would enquire into the matter.
“We did not get any pruning request but we will see if the forest official who sits at Tughlaqabad has issued any such order or not,” said an MCD official. However, residents allege, that the pruning, which was supposed to have been done in the winters, was instead being done in the summer. They also claimed that the wood was being sold off for a handsome price to crematoriums in the city.
“The officials have the permission to cut branches only up to two inches in circumference. But in the garb of pruning, they are chopping off large sections of the trees in order to trade the wood off somewhere else,” said a resident, requesting anonymity.
Resident Welfare Association (RWA) members of the area said they had no knowledge about it. “The pruning is being done by the MCD’s horticulture department and they did not consult us. They decide on how many trees and in what area are to be pruned,” said NL Meena, member, Masjid Moth RWA.