Start of The Hitavada campaign against tree-felling in Nagpur city

Dear friends,
Here is an article, very special to my heart. This article not only marked beginning of 'The Hitavada' campaign against tree-felling in Nagpur city, but also led to filing of a public interest litigation in the court. This is special to my heart for one more reason -- I shared by-line with my Editor Shri Vijay Phanshikar in this article. I feel proud and privileged sharing by-line with him... It is rare for a reporter to share by-line with Editor of a newspaper. I am fortunate enough to have got this honour.

(Photograph used here is representative and not of the actual site.)

No cricket here, just stumps

(Published in The Hitavada CityLine on March 2, 2006)  

By Vijay Phanshikar & Kartik Lokhande

When he was creating Anandwan over fifty years ago, Baba Amte always felt a wrench in his heart while felling numerous trees in the jungle site to make the colony possible. But after Anandwan was ready, Baba, a poet at heart, head and hand, created a Tomb of the Unknown Tree to pay tributes to all the trees he had to fell while creating something as precious as Anandwan. In Nagpur, however, such a sensitivity is not to be experienced, at any level. The administration is rigid and the people are frigid. As a result, trees at right spots get felled at will, without any rhyme and reason, and retained in wrong and dangerous places, again without rhyme and reason. And when environmentalists raise their voice, the frigid society dubs them as crackpots. Nobody seems to have read Wordsworth's poem in the Lucy series when he says, at the wilting of a Violet flower, "Oh, the difference to me...,!" On Wednesday, the city saw two cases of how trees get butchered here. One spot is in front of the Alankar Talkies on the North Ambazari Road. The other is at the south-east corner of the square in Byramji Town opposite the Bapuna residence on Chhindwara Road. On the North Ambazari Road, some people, under whose authority nobody knows, felled as many as six old tamarind trees. To the questioning passers-by, the tree-fellers said, they belonged to the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT). They also said that they had the backing of a 2001 permission from the Tree Authority to bring the trees down. The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) officials, however, deny straightaway that they are even aware of any such permission. Yet, the letter written by the Garden Superintendent of NIT to his counterpart in the NMC says: "Sub.: Transplantation/cutting of tree at North Ambazari Road. Ref: Tree Authority Committee Meeting dt 31/08/01.

"Sub.: Transplantation/cutting of tree at North Ambazari Road. Ref: Tree Authority Committee Meeting dt 31/08/01. As per the order of Hon. Commissioner NMC dt. 31/8/01, permission has been granted for cutting/transplantation of tree, in North Ambazari Road. That time, 5-6 trees were left for above operation. Today, these were infected with pest & disease & are likely to fall any time. Hence, Nagpur Improvement Trust is going to cut these trees to avoid further accident, as the permission has already been given by your Department." At Byramji Town, some others whose identity is not known, brought down a neem tree at least one hundred years old, even though it was not a traffic hazard. In fact, the tree stood at a spot around which a triangular traffic island could easily be created to allow left-turning traffic to move on smoothly, which is an accepted practice all over the city. Yet, that tree today has become history, a victim of outrage of insensitive souls. When The Hitavada contacted Dinesh Waghmare, NIT Chairman, he pleaded ignorance about the case. "I don't know exactly what happened. I will have to verify," he said. On whether the permission given five years back be executed now, Waghmare said that it could be unless the permission was cancelled. Lokesh Chandra, Municipal Commissioner, NMC, also pleaded ignorance as to who permitted cutting of trees and when. R Z Siddiqui, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, NMC, said that he did not remember any decision about cutting the trees in recent times. After receiving a phone call from a member of the public, he had sent a Garden Inspector to the spot on North Ambazari Road on Wednesday to stop the tree felling. He took the step as NMC Garden Superintendent Shrikhande was out of city, and he wanted to stay the tree felling till the latter was here. However, the Garden Inspector did not report later, he said. When pointed out that the trees were chopped, Siddiqui said that it meant that the NIT men did not follow the orders to stop. It amounted to 'procedural lapse' as no permission was sought from NMC, he added. N S Shrikhande, Garden Superintendent, NMC, who was in Pune on Wednesday said that 'no permission was taken from him for cutting the trees'. As tree-feeling went on, some alert citizens rushed to the NMC officials. City Architect and environmental enthusiast Paramjitsingh Ahuja telephoned Siddiqui to enquire. The Deputy Municipal Commissioner said, he would act promptly and send his officers to stop the felling. He also wondered if Ahuja and others could create a public pressure to stall the felling. Said Ahuja, "I must say, Siddiqui acted very quickly, but his officers could not stop the felling of trees near Alankar Talkies." Ahuja also told The Hitavada that when the NIT men told him that the trees were being eaten up by termites, he even called in a Botanist friend who certified that termite treatment could have easily saved the trees. The cutting down of trees without the knowledge of the authorities is a blatant violation of environmental norms. Besides, there was no solid reason for the chopping because the trees cut down were not an obstruction to the traffic. There was no purpose to be served also, as the work of Integrated Road Development Project was already finished and no new proposal of road widening was there. This incident has once again raised question over the attitude of authorities whether they want to keep the city green.