Two trees axed; Chennai residents sound the alarm

A good number of us dream to live as long as Methuselah did. Trees live that dream, some even outliving that poster boy for longevity, if they are allowed to. Last week, two trees on PV Cherian Crescent Road in Egmore were denied that “permission”. Count it among existential oddities that trees have to be permitted by an artificial human-made world to realise the potential for longevity received unconditionally from Nature.

At PV Cherian Crescent Road, which derives its quietude in no small measure from the trees lining it, the axe struck twice last week, the first time on December 7, reducing one massive tree to a stump. According to a resident who wants to stay anonymous, when the workers were questioned about it, pat came the reply that the Corporation had ordered the hand that wielded the axe. With that explanation, residents who were disturbed by the cutting of the tree assumed there should be a justification for the act and let the matter rest. On December 12, the axe struck again, the Avenue’s arboreal wealth down by one more tree. 

“Two beautiful big trees with their canopy spreading from one side of the road to the other, were mercilessly felled. We now fear the other trees around here for years providing shade, will be soon gone too,” says M. Deepika, a resident of PV Cherian Crescent Road. 

The matter was now breathed to tree conservation NGO Nizhal and the Chennai District Green Committee. As it turned out, the cutting of the two trees had not been authorised by Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). 

At the time of this article going to press, a GCC official familiar with the developments said Corporation staff from the GCC’s parks department had gone to the site to collect the fine from the private entity who had had the trees cut. 

T.D. Babu, a member of Chennai District Green Committee who is also associated with Nizhal, said the cutting of these two trees was news to the green committee. 

“GCC had not given permission for the trees to be cut. GCC or any other local civic body or government agency managing a road (example: highways) cannot order the felling of a tree in its roads, no matter how justified the move might be, without first presenting the case to the district green committee and seeking its approval,” explains Babu. 

If this process is not followed, a line, a clearly etched green line, is crossed.

Babu continues: “The green committee had decided to penalise such violators with of fine of ₹ one lakh per tree. The way builders and other commercial establishments are violating the rule by bypassing the approval process and getting away with a penalty, I feel ₹ one lakh is too small. They, especially builders and commercial establishments, need temporary suspension of the building project and suspension of commercial license beside heavy penalty respectively. This will bring them in line. Similarly, private tree cutters need to be brought within a ring of accountability. Every district should identify tree cutters and have them registered and given licenses. Only these people can cut the tree upon approval. This will help in traceability, which is lacking.”

Back to PV Cherian Crescent Road, from whatever was left of one of the trees that was captured on camera, Babu identified it as a rain tree, probably 70 years old with considerably more years un-lived, never to be lived. In the arboreal world, its epitaph would read “struck down in its prime.”