Saving the fully grown trees | gardens

MMRDA to cut 121 trees on this small road

mmrda is making veera desai road into a 90-feet road without approval by citizens. this is a purely residential road with 3 schools, 2 temples, a bank, tons of school children waiting for school buses all day long as well as pensioners going about their daily chores.

mmrda wants to cut 121 trees on this small road. we have given an alternate plan- saving the trees, and using them as a natural divider for a cyclists lane. mmrda dismissed the need for a cyclists lane in bombay. then we said it could be a bus lane or a 2 and 3 wheeler lane. they are not interested,

we met the traffic police, and showed them our plan. no response.

Once the road is widened, there will be no space for residents car parking, as bldg compounds are being acquired for the road widening. They want to make it part of their dahisar to bandra link road. We have suggested they make it one-way only. No response to that too. The tree authority, thanks to pressure formus, hasn't yet given permission to cut the trees. But they have informally told mmrda to go ahead.

We will go to court to save our trees, because this ``development'' is at the cost of our lives.

Can u help?
rgds
jyoti

Response to MMRDA to cut 121 trees on this small road

Mrs. Rekha Vijay Ajgaonkar,
Advance Locality Management (ALM),
Veera Desai Rd.)
            A-10, Aparna, Veera Desai Road,
                    Andheri (West),
                    Mumbai 400 058.
                    Tel: 2677069

To,
The Municipal Commissioner,
Brihan Mumbai Mahanagar Palika,
Mumbai Palika Building,
C.S.T. Mumbai - 400 001.

                        January 26, 2005.
Dear Sir,

Saving the fully grown trees while widening the Veera Desai Road by MMRDA.

It is painful to know that about 120 fully grown up trees are expected to be hacked for widening Veera Desai Road.   These trees provide good shade, attract different birds and certainly help in keeping down pollution in our area.   The trees are indeed pride of Veera Desai Road.

The residents are not against widening the road - this is no doubt a need of the hour. However, we would wish you to explore possibilities of saving the trees while widening the road. We appreciate that, knowing the earlier experience, re-plantation benefits only the contractors. May we therefore give two practical suggestions?

1)    Modification of road design. It is understood that trees lining up the eastern side of the Road are likely to face an axe. If so, a minor modification in the plan could help save the trees.

i)       Divide the eastern side in two lanes - the first lane would adjoin the footpath and would be relatively smaller, earmarked for two and three wheelers. The first lane would be followed by a space left for the existing trees. The second lane would adjoin this space and would be reserved for four wheelers.

To make it convenient to accommodate bus stops and for buses to stop, the space in between two trees could be narrowed at the desired spots - please have look at the drawing appended to the letter.

ii)    If it is felt that, as a consequence, the space on the eastern side of the road would be comparatively smaller, the space on the western side could be adjusted accordingly.

2)   Planting of new trees:   No doubt, you would be planting new trees if saving of the existing trees is not possible. Could you consider the possibility of planting relatively grown up trees, nurtured by nurseries?

This would help accelerate greening up the road.

Yours sincerely,

(Rekha Ajgaonkar)