All over Mumbai, mature trees are being cut down with startling alacrity, most of them disappearing overnight. Please safeguard the remaining trees and protect this city from further degradation, heat, dust and flooding.
We, the petition signers appeal that following measures must be adhered religiously.
Cutting of Trees: The Maharashtra Protection and Preservation of Trees Act 1976 states that:
1. Whenever a tree has to be cut down, a readable notification should be pasted on the trunk of the tree itself a month in advance of cutting. The site should be visited by an officer to verify the need for cutting. Permission should only be given to cut the tree after a period of 60 days. (This is seldom done.)
2. The cutting down of any tree/trees has to be notified prominently in a newspaper.
3. Two trees must be planted for each cut down and Rs.4,000/- deposited per tree to be refunded once the replanting is completed. (to date Rs.100 crore has been collected with no refund claimed as replanting has not been done.)
4. When replanting, sturdy saplings must be used and nurtured until they are strong and growing well.
5. Trimming or chopping a tree without permission is punishable with a fine and also imprisonment.
Transplantation of Trees :
1. Botanists and Tree experts should be consulted before tree transplantation to make sure that the trees are compatible with the soil.
2. They should certify that the tree lends itself to this process before transplanting.
3. Only young and short trees which are more likely to survive the process should be transplanted.
4. Before transplanting a tree, the priming period should be well planned, the pit dug and the right soil brought and exposed for at least a month.
Each tree in the city is extremely valuable, a national asset which we should protect at all costs. The concerned authorities should strictly implement the laws in place and adhere to procedures before any permission is granted to cut any more trees or transplant them.
