Often the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is at the receiving end of environmentalists and tree lovers' ire for its propensity to chop down any tree that dares stand in between the civic body and its road-widening plans.
But, this time around, the benevolent civic body has decided to spare a Baobab tree near Gujarat College, although it is bang in middle of the road that is being widened. The Baobab is called 'Rukdo' in Gujarati and less than 1,000 trees of the species have managed to survive in the state. There are only four baobab trees in the city. Two are in Victoria Garden and one in Sukharamnagar area.
This tree near Gujarat college is located opposite the church. The civic body plans to save the tree by curbing it.
"This is a regular practice that is undertaken by the civic body to save a tree that comes in way of road widening projects," said Jignesh Patel, director of parks and garden department of AMC. Patel said that as per the re-development plan, the road is being widened to accommodate the traffic. However, the tree is in the middle of the road.
"But we plan to save the tree, as it is our duty to prevent it from going extinct," he said.
Moreover, the department has taken an initiative to save the species in the state. "We have nurtured nearly 1,000 saplings of Baobab in a nursery and they will be planted in various areas of the city," said Patel.
The civic body has also curbed old neem trees near Ellis Bridge Gymkhana. The civic body plans to remove only the fast growing trees that come in way of its re-development plan. Mahesh Pandya, director of Paryavaran Mitra, congratulated the civic body on its efforts to save the rare species.
However, he said the civic body also needs to focus more on trees such as Banyan, Pipal and Tamarind. "As these trees occupy more space, nobody wants to plant them in the courtyard," said Pandya.
Earlier the trees were to be found in the compounds of the cotton mills of Ahmedabad. "However with the mills shutting down, most of the trees are now on the verge of extinction. The civic body should plant more such trees in the open plots owned by it," said Pandya.
