Greens see red over ‘official’ hacking of trees

Kolkata: Greens are seeing red over the ‘official’ axing of four century-old banyan trees on Panditya Road to widen a section of it that will enable construction of a luxury residential tower in the adjacent plot.
A decade ago, several trees had similarly been felled by Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to widen an 80-m stretch that facilitated the construction of an 18-storey tower.A real estate consultant said the proposed tower on 36A Panditya Road is likely to have 33 to 35 floors with 4-BHK units priced at Rs 5 to 6 crore.

A developer, who constructed the Oasis project that comprises two towers of 25 storeys and four nine-storied buildings as well as the 18-storied Fort Verde, said around 40 cottah had been donated to the KMCaround a decade ago to carry out the road widening.
“KMC had widened only a portion of the road earlier and is now widening another section. The trees have been felled by KMC as part of the road widening project and developers have no part to play in it,” the builder said.
A KMC roads department official said the widening project was scheduled earlier but got delayed due to the elections. “After elections, the work has been taken up on a priority basis. Permission to cut the trees was taken from the forest department,” the official said.
The move has raised the hackles of old-timers in the locality as well as green activists. Local resident, Sisir Datta, 78, who has seen the trees since childhood, is distraught at the merciless hacking.
“How do you justify cutting trees that have been a landmark in the locality? Why the environment is the first casualty whenever one talks about development?” questioned Datta.
Green action group PUBLIC founder, Bonani Kakkar, who had stepped in a decade ago to attempt the transplantation of eight trees that were felled at Panditya Road, said it was extremely sad the civic body considers public trees that belong to the city as its own property and orders its axing.
“ The micro-climate of locality will become harsher,” she said.
(With inputs from Debabrata Shome)