267 trees felled illegally in 5 years,5,274 felled legally: RTI response
   Date :04-Dec-2021

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OFTEN, hue and cry is raised over illegal tree felling. However, the reply of Garden Department of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) to an application under Right to Information (RTI) Act reveals that in the past five years the number of trees felled legally is more than illegal felling of trees in city.
In response to the application under RTI Act filed by activist Abhay Kolarkar, NMC’s Garden Department stated that 267 trees were felled illegally in the city in the past five years.
During the same period, as many as 5,274 trees were felled legally and an amount of Rs 3,00,95,750/- was collected as deposit.
Between January 1, 2020 and August 30, 2021, NMC’s Garden Department issued permission to fell 1,110 trees in the city. Thus, on an average, during the aforementioned period of 20 months, 55.5 trees were felled in the city every month with due permission.
That is, more than one tree was felled every day during the said period. Interestingly, much of this period saw COVID-19 outbreak and lockdowns, followed by restrictions on various activities.
Kolarkar had also sought information regarding iron and cement benches created and installed, expenditure incurred on the same, procurement of tree-guards and expenditure incurred on it since 2017. In response, NMC’s Garden Department first stated that the information sought was ‘detailed’ and would be provided after compilation.
Accordingly, the department provided the information later on. As per the information, between 2017 and 2020, total 193 benches were installed and expenditure incurred on it was Rs 15.76 lakh. As far as benches are concerned, they are installed at various locations ‘as suggested by corporators’. Also, during the said period, total 7,298 tree-guards were installed at the cost of Rs 1.25 crore.