Save our trees

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">Everywhere in the city, every day, the sound of the axe tolls the knell of countless trees. Just one fortnight''s casualty list, chosen at random, includes the slaughter of 128 peepuls and raintrees near Haji Ali and of a whole tree-lined avenue at Mankhurd.<br />It took (strangely) a gynaecologist, Dr Anahita Pundole, to deal with one sinister cause of tree damage.Hoarding contractors, she told the Bombay High Court, were wantonly maiming trees to permit an unobstructed view of the advertisements. The municipality, she added, was licensing an unchecked proliferation of hoardings, violating even its own guidelines, in a wild scramble for revenue. The court has put a temporary stop to this.<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Trees vs pollution</span><br />Another person who restores one''s faith in humanity, somewhat, is M M Kumtakar, once a Deputy Conservator of Forests in the State. He has dedicated his post-retirement life to planting and nurturing the trees that are right for the city - that is, those that counter pollution, while pleasing the eye. For instance, he even distinguishes between two species of the same tree, the Ashok. He rejects the popular drooping variety, preferring the Saraca Indica, an excellent anti-pollutant but endangered species. <br />Kumtakara is susceptible to bronchitis. Not unnaturally, therefore, he wants cleaner more healthy air in the city. Respiratory and eye afflictions, stomach problems and loss of energy, "which we now accept with resignation are traceable, a lot of it, to the air we breathe." Kumtakar sees the right trees as nature''s shield against these problems: "Trees breathe out cleansing oxygen and deal with nitrous gases."<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Tree of the 21st century</span><br />He feels for the bawa and shiwan as he does for friends, respecting their medicinal properties and attraction for birds. He has a special love for the neem. "If teak was the wood of the 20th century," he says, "the neem will be the tree of the 21st." Even pharmaceutical MNCs now recognise what our grandmothers have always known, the tree''s multitude of health-giving blessings.<br />Kumtakar agrees with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature that Mumbai needs a million more trees than it has to absorb the carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and sulphides welling into the air from various sources. "We have the land," he says, "but lack the planning and some know-how."<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Planting is not enough</span><br />There is great potential for growing more trees in a very large number of the city''s 40,000 odd cooperative housing societies, to say nothing of schools and college premises, factories and corporate offices, open spaces, parks and gardens.<br />Planting is not enough. "Less than half of what we plant survives," says Kumtakar. "I want to raise the survival rate to 90%." Methods to be used include when and how to plant, how to foster growth, how to protect seedlings and from what etc. <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Amend the Act</span><br />The Municipal Commissioner has recently ordered changes in building permission rules increasing the number of trees to be planted by builders. Splendid, but what trees? Kumtakar dismisses the popular gulmohur and fruit trees as ''worthless.'' He tells us of the Vrakshayurveda, a book written in the 5th century. Nature, it teaches, provides us the right protection at various heights from the ground. The highest canopy is provided by the tall ones, like the peepul and the neem. A middle canopy comes with the oudumber, shivan and badam, among others. Then come the small plants like the tulsi, a wonderful air purifier and pest repellent. <br />Kumtakar believes that more important than tree lore is the need to amend the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Preservation of Trees Act, 1975. In it, for instance, the word ''tree'' must not also cover shrubs. Currently, housing societies can get away with shrubs instead of the required number of trees on the land.<br />A schedule of trees that counter pollution must be prepared, from which builders must choose what they will plant. </div> </div>