Forty trees may be axed for Seawoods rly station project

NAVI MUMBAI: Around 40 trees near Seawoods Railway station project are facing the axe for the sake of beautification. Activists have approached NMMC, saying there was no need to cut the trees.
Cidco has awarded L&T the contract to develop over 40 acres of land into a grand station complex at Seawoods. NMMC has granted permission to remove around 40 trees for an entry gate to the complex.
“It’s wrong to destroy trees located in a public place.As far as the entry gate is concerned, only six to seven trees need to be cut,” said Sameer Bagwan, a Sena functionary.
Though NMMC claims these trees will be replanted, activists say the trees will be destroyed in this process, as the success rate of replantation is poor.
“Replantation if not done properly could lead to the trees dying. Moreover, gardens department officials failed to give proper reasons for cutting the trees,” said Anarjit Chauhan, an RTI activist.
It shows the carelessness of the officers as the permission has been granted by the NMMC tree committee which did not even carry out a survey before granting the approval, Chauhan added.
Meanwhile, head of NMMC gardens department, Tushar Pawar, said, “An inquiry will be initiated based on a complaint from a local citizen. We will need to find out which of the trees are really acting as obstacles to the entry gate and only those will be removed, and later replanted. The other trees will be preserved.”