City keeps no records on trees felled or planted

The department, which had removed trees while renovating the Institute of Children’s Health, Egmore; Humayun Mahal; and Kotturpuram Park, is silent on fixing the ecological damage caused. “The officials had promised to regenerate the tree cover in the area,” recalled Raghavan R, founder of Green Voice International, an NGO.

Raghavan said the Green Voice had to take initiative in planting saplings at Kotturpuram Park for the revival of the green space. “We have tried to secure saplings of the same kind of native trees that were uprooted. It is important that the saplings be at least five feet in height to make sure their variability and growth,” he said.

He also said that the first time they planted saplings, the residents were asked to look after the plants. “But they didn’t. And when we went to check after two weeks all the plants were dead. After that, we planted again, but it was removed by the officials. When we asked about this, the officials didn’t respond. They asked us not to plant anything and promised to do it themselves but in vain,” Raghavan said.

Recently, the trees near Humayun Mahal were destroyed by drilling multiple holes in its trunk to inject a chemical meant to dry out the roots. The process was repeated for 20 days to make sure that the trees died and dried out. A senior official of PWD (Building wing) said, “If trees are causing a threat to the building, we will remove them. We will see if there are any possibilities to replant them. If not, it will be felled and if possible another sapling would be planted. There is no point in replanting the rain trees, because it is fast-growing, while native trees which are more than five to ten years old will be shifted to other places.”

He also clarified that they don’t maintain any records on the number of trees felled or planted during renovations or undertaking any development works in the city.