After cutting 11 trees near the Savitribai Phule Pune University gate on the Raj Bhavan Marg, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) road department has said they are awaiting a nod from the tree authority to cut another 35 trees between Rajiv Gandhi bridge in Aundh Gaon and Bremen chowk.
“We have completed acquisition of land from the Police Motor Workshop as well as Aundh Gaon recently, and the trees causing hindrance to the motor lane will be cut as the Raj Bhavan Marg is a main corridor,” said Rajendra Raut, PMC road department. But, he assured that the trees near the footpath or are part of footpath will be retained.
Five trees in the Savitribai Phule Pune University chowk and six trees along the road from Bremen chowk to Vidyapeeth Gate were axed by authorities in the wee hours on Sunday. One of the trees cut down recently was a Banyan tree which was more than 100 years old, that stood in the verandah of the heritage police chowky. The environmentalists, tree activists and tree lovers had protested against this move.
According to Raut, “The move to cut the trees was sanctioned on October 26, 2017, by municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar. It is an extension to the sanction that we had received from the tree authority on April 3, 2017. The traffic police does not give us permission to cut the trees during the day as it will cause a lot of traffic snarls, for we use heavy equipment to cut them. Hence, we were allowed to cut the trees only during the night.”
{{/usCountry}}According to Raut, “The move to cut the trees was sanctioned on October 26, 2017, by municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar. It is an extension to the sanction that we had received from the tree authority on April 3, 2017. The traffic police does not give us permission to cut the trees during the day as it will cause a lot of traffic snarls, for we use heavy equipment to cut them. Hence, we were allowed to cut the trees only during the night.”
{{/usCountry}}The road department also said that they have also saved 50 trees on the Ganeshkhind road and replanted the 20 trees that were cut already. Besides the 35 trees, another 42 trees will be chopped off on the old Bombay Pune road for road widening.