Mumbai: Green activists raise doubts over increase in trees

Green activists fighting against the reducing green cover in Mumbai seem to be in no mood to believe the claims being made by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that the number of trees in the city has increased by around 10.5 lakhs since the last tree census a decade ago.

"Ask any Mumbaikar who has been living in the city for more than a decade if he thinks that the tree cover has grown by around 10 lakhs and he might laugh at this claim. Had this claim been a fact, we would not even require to approach the High Court," said Khar-based activist Zoru Bhathena who has also filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the issue of tree cutting in Mumbai in the Bombay High Court.

Questioning the veracity of the claims being made by the BMC about the rise in number of trees, Bhatena said, "If the BMC was doing geo-tagging of each tree in every ward, then where is the data and why is it not in the public domain for people to go out on the streets and count them?" "It seems very hard to believe this data as well as the census that has been carried out and if BMC has done an authentic job, all the data, including that of previous years should be put in public domain for verification," he said.

Meanwhile Juhu-based filmmaker and activist Ashoke Pandit said that the citizens would want to know about this miracle one is witnessing fast depleting green cover across the city. "I am astonished about this census as the city in the last decade has seen so many infrastructure work being carried out, for which a huge number of trees has been felled. Also, thousands of trees have died due to mealy bug attack and here BMC claims the rise is by 10 lakh. We will file RTI and would investigate these claims," he said.