Tree trimming drive faces hurdles over parked cars

Pre-monsoon tree trimming activities across wards are turning into heated arguments between the citizens and contractual labourers. Vehicles parked at the roadside are making it difficult to trim the overloaded branches and remove dead branches, which is crucial for citizen safety, said a civic official. The civic body has targeted 1.12 lakh trees on roads by June 7.

Civic officials said that people are not co-operating and refuse to remove their vehicles when requested by civic workers. Jitendra Pardeshi, Superintendent of Gardens, has therefore stepped in and appealed to the citizens to remove their vehicles from roads during such drives.

Officials said that the exercise also faced stiff opposition from activists and tree lovers in Bandra and Santacruz here are trimmed from the bottom and not the top.”

The BMC is carrying out regular pruning to prevent incidents of tree collapse or falling branches during rains. Overgrown branches often fall on the road during monsoon, due to which motorists have to face inconvenience and sometimes it also leads to accidents. There are 1.86 lakh trees on the roadside as per the tree census. The BMC surveyed 1.46 lakh trees that required trimming, out of which 1.12 lakh were roadside trees. The BMC has trimmed 15,821 trees/branches till now.

The BMC has already sent notices to 3,690 government and private premises asking them to trim or cut off any tree or branch that poses a danger to people. The responsibility for caring for trees in housing societies, government and semi-government organisations, and private spaces falls on the respective owners or users.