Tree activists in the city have come down heavily on the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for adding a clause which holds concerned contractors responsible for any mishap due to tree collapse. This they feel may lead to indiscriminate hacking and chopping of trees in the city amid a scorching summer. It will also impact a tree's health. Furthermore, activists allege that the BMC can't shrug off its responsibility and depend upon contractors alone.
The BMC has recently incorporated a new clause in its contract which makes contractors solely responsible for the detection of dead or dangerous trees. For this, they had been advised to use modern technology and a technical expert experienced in the field. In the event of any untoward incident due to tree collapse, the contractors will be held responsible and not BMC.
"According to the new clause the contractors have to hire a horticulturist to ensure the scientific survey of the trees," said an officer from the garden department of the BMC.
However, activists are not amused by the development.
Zoru Bhathena, a tree activist who has filed a PIL in the high court against the BMC's tree trimming procedure. said, "The contractors tend to cut bigger branches as they get more money out of it. There isn't any scientific procedure for tree trimming."
"How can civic body shrug off its responsibility? Day to day maintenance of these trees is BMC's responsibility. It should ensure proper trimming otherwise the contractor will end up chopping all branches," said CH Lattoo, another tree expert.
Echoing Bhathena's sentiments, AV Shenoy, a civic activist said, "BMC first needs to ask its own contractors to carry out pruning scientifically. Trees on Lamington Road in SoBo have been hacked, and all its lower boughs have been removed."
Every year the civic body gives contracts to prune or hack trees, wherever necessary, to avoid any accident in case of a collapse. Despite that, quite a few trees and branches collapsed even though they were trimmed. More than 1500 incidents of tree/branch collapse incidents had been reported. Last year six people died and 30 people got injured in 3169 tree/branch collapse incidents across the city.
