Nagpur: The Nagpur University (NU) lower Boys’ Hostel premises at Law College Square on Amravati Road wore a devastated look on Wednesday following brutal chopping of 32 full grown trees by its garden department without the mandatory permission from Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).
The shocking move gave a flippant impression of the vice-chancellor SP Kane’s mission ‘One student, One Tree’ launched last monsoon on the lines of the state government’s 13 crore plantation drive. It is not known why the felling was carried out.
Of the 32 trees, two big trees were cut from the roots, severely removed. The trees which were cut included one big banyaan, two neem, four gulmohar, 11 cassia, one ritha among other species. Some of these trees were located on the department lands adjoining the hostel.
Hostel inmates told that they had opposed the tree cutting, but authorities didn’t heed to their pleas. NMC officials alerted by NGO Green Vigil’s Kaustav Chatterjee were carrying out panchnama. The NGO member Surbhi Jaiswal and Mehul Kosurkar assisted NMC of the spot and identifying the species.
NMC officials said the university’s garden department had not taken any permission. The NMC had allowed to cut only a big mango tree which had dried up and was posing threat to students safety, the officials said.
Activist Chatterjee said as per Maharashtra (Urban areas) (Urban areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975 (Amended in 2016), even for cutting branches one needs permission from respective municipal corporation.
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 lower Boys’ Hostel premises at Law College Square on Amravati Road wore a devastated look on Wednesday following brutal){kind=link}