De-choke 4,000 trees across city by Feb 23: Bidari

Nagpur: With nearly 4,000 trees still to be de-choked across the city, divisional commissioner Vijayalakshmi Bidari on Tuesday directed all concerned agencies to complete the remaining work by Feb 23, ahead of filing an affidavit before the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court.The review was held at a meeting of the high-power committee constituted pursuant to the HC directions in a PIL. Sources also said that pending numbers vary, with some agencies having around 500 trees left, while others have between 10 and 100 trees under their jurisdiction. Bidari scheduled another review meeting on Feb 23 to take stock before the affidavit is finalised. The affidavit is proposed to be submitted to the HC before the matter is listed for hearing on Feb 27.
In its Feb 6 order, the HC noted that, as per divisional commissioner's report, 4,490 trees were identified as choked, along with 4,167 newly identified trees. The court observed that the total figure may go up to around 9,000 trees and said the de-choking work should be completed within 15 days.Officials said the Feb 23 meeting will serve as a final review to ensure remaining work is completed within the bench's timeline.