Tough going for trees

Several trees were felled by the municipal authorities to increase the width of Nepean Sea Road from 60 feet to 90 feet earlier this year. Resistance to the road widening exercise from high profile residents of the area and public protests resulted in 74 of the trees being transplanted. Residents had even resorted to "chipko” style agitations by hugging the trees to prevent them from being felled, reported The Times of India (TOI) on October 21, 2009. Unfortunately, about half the number of trees that were transplanted by the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) did not survive though civic officials had claimed that a good monsoon would ensure at least a 70 percent survival rate. The horticulture department has been watering the trees, even providing hormonal treatment for the roots, as per the TOI report, but with poor results.

"All our trees have survived,” stated Behram N. Gamadia, whose huge Gama­dia House estate was among the worst affected. Gamadia and his wife Simoneel transplanted their over 100-year-old frangipani tree on their own property and sent nine palm trees to the Godrej and Boyce company grounds at Vikhroli. Gamadia also dismissed the BMC’s claim of a 50 percent survival rate, saying it was approximately 15 percent, reported TOI.

The family of former solicitor general of India Soli Sorabjee agreed to cede a major portion of their compound in March 2009 after protracted negotiations with the BMC. Three palms and one frangipani tree standing on their land were successfully transplanted by them. The civic authorities relocated some of the remaining trees at the Banganga pumping station and near Priyadarshini Park. "The cannon ball tree that we transplanted at the August Kranti Maidan is doing well. So is the peepal tree,” though some of the coconut trees at Banganga lost their canopy because of the high waves, Amol Vasaikar, assistant horticulturist, D-Ward, Malabar Hill informed TOI.