ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK: Trees being cut on Begumpet road on Tuesday. - Photo: Satish H.

HYDERABAD: The Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad has not taken the mandatory permission from the district authorities for cutting trees on certain stretches in the city where it has already gone ahead with the road widening exercise and chopped down several trees.

According to official sources, while MCH took permission for cutting trees alongside Road Nos 2 and 3 in Banjara Hills and Road No. 36 in Jubilee Hills, the same was not taken for the exercise alongside the Hyderabad Public School compound.

However, several trees on this stretch have already been axed down. This stretch, one of the only few roads that had beautiful trees providing shade, could have been managed with minimal cutting of trees since there was abundant space for road use, according to the sources.

Penal action

On Tuesday, MCH officials engaged in tree-cutting in front of HPS were stopped by the RDO who reminded them that they had to secure permission for the exercise failing which penal action could be initiated against them.

Trees on the Monappa Island-Greenlands stretch were also cut down, purportedly without the required consent of the authority concerned, in this case, the District Magistrate.

Sources said while MCH was arguing that their requests for permission were pending with the district administration for a long time, the latter insists there has been no correspondence whatsoever for the exercise in front of HPS.

"Just because requests for some other road is pending, it does not mean that they can go ahead with the exercise elsewhere," an official said, adding that everyone understood the importance and urgency of the road-widening process. "Still, it cannot be done in a haphazard manner," she said.

To plant saplings

MCH, on the other hand, has its own version to the issue.

A senior official said the corporation was planning to plant saplings that would not grow beyond three or four feet wherever space was available.

But the road widening process could not be kept on hold due to delays in paperwork.

However, the Andhra Pradesh Water, Land and Trees Act clearly stipulate that no felling of the trees or branches is permitted "without the prior permission of the designated officer."

It also states that in case "when a tree is to be felled, not less than two seedlings should be planted and when such planting is not possible, cost of raising seedlings and their maintenance shall be recovered from the concerned individual, organisation or other persons for raising plantations in public places."

The MCH, accordingly, has to compensate for the trees cut by planting double the number of trees it cuts within its own area, in the Green Belt area or any HUDA-specified area.

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