CHENNAI: The city corporation has pruned the branches of nearly half a dozen trees on the Raj Bhavan campus, allegedly because they were leaning on to Sardar Patel Road and obstructing the view of motorists.
The act has raised the hackles of environmentalists who say these trees neither posed a threat to road users, nor had they become dry and that there was no need to chop off the branches. T Murugavel, a conservationist, said these trees were among the thousands that had naturally grown on the vast Raj Bhavan campus which was part of the Guindy National Park (GNP).
Driving along the stretch of Sardar Patel Road extending from near Gandhi Mandapam-Anna University to the end of the Raj Bhavan compound is a pleasant experience mainly due to the presence of the trees in the GNP. They help reduce the temperature and their branches provide shade for those strolling along the pavement along the stretch. While cutting down the branches of some of the trees in the name of pruning is not needed, it will also affect the health of the trees themselves, said environmentalists.
Wildlife department officials said that they were not aware of the pruning of trees undertaken by the corporation, but promised to look into the issue.
When contacted, corporation officials said the pruning was done following a request made by the city police who said that they had received complaints from several motorists saying the branches were obstructing their vision on the busy stretch. “Even when Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu visited the city last week, some of the branches of the trees on this stretch were pruned by us,” said an official.
Asked about the unwanted cutting of some huge branches of some of the trees, the official said the civic body had hired a new person for the pruning. Without understanding the importance, he had unnecessarily cut some huge branches of a few trees. “He has been warned not to cut such branches of the trees in future,” the official said.
