Housewives see red over Kanjurmarg green cover
MUMBAI: Taking time out from their daily responsibilities, seven middle-aged women were able to save 313 trees on LBS Marg in Kanjurmarg from the civic body’s axe.
The repeated efforts of these women forced the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to backtrack on its proposal to slaughter trees for storm water drains works on the 6.1km stretch of LBS Marg from Vikhroli to Bhandup.
The women came together to oppose the BMC when they came to know trees were about to be axed for a work they say got over in June.
The women, Uma Venkat, Neera Tilak, Snehal Basrur, Bindu Padmakumar, Aarti Chhibber, Prashanti Garga and Carolien Klep, are all homemakers who were once working professionals.
Uma Venkat, 53, a former railway employee, says, “When I first read about the tree cutting proposal, I knew I had to stop this. Since childhood, we had seen these trees grow along with us and many of them have been planted by our parents and neighbours.”
Venkat says that after reading the HT article on August 6 about BMC’S plan to chop down 383 trees of which 313 were on LBS Marg, she went to the garden department at Byculla on August 8. There, she came into contact with the other women who had the same urge to save trees as she did. They struck up a friendship.they visited BMC offices, spoke to contractors and also asked the neighbouring Naval Housing Colony members to join the fight.
Klep, 42, who is originally from the Netherlands and married to an Indian, says, “It is good that we all came together as there is no personal motive here but only love for trees.”