MANGALORE: Every time a citizen wants to build a house, the building licence sternly says "the holder of this licence should plant a tree or trees around his house." The directive implies that planting trees is mandatory. Had this rule been implemented in letter and spirit, Mangalore city should not have lost any greenery.

But do the licensing authorities follow this rule?

The Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) has not seriously implemented the re-clause planting. The corporation itself is chopping trees as part of its road-widening programme.

Since 2001, four major roads in the city have been concretised — Kudmul Ranga Rao Road, M.G. Road and the Lady-Hill Urva Stores Road and a part of the Airport Road.

Canopy gone

Driving on these roads is a pleasant experience, but over 60 large trees have been felled to build these roads in the last five years.

According to the tree inventory available with the tree officer in the corporation, the trees that were felled included Deodhar, Goli, Wild Mango, Wild Jack, and Honge, which are not only shade giving but also have a huge canopy that lends beauty to the surroundings.

The coporation has planted shrubs, which do not grow more than five feet tall and hardly provide any shade or yield very few flowers. Four huge stumps of Deodhar trees stand in a line near Palke Krishna Achar Hall at Ballal Bagh as a symbol of tree felling by the corporation. The corporation has planted four shrubs (Surinam Cherry) as a replacement to a series of Deodhar trees near the Mangala fair grounds on M.G. Road. Before it became a concrete road, it was full of local trees recall the residents of the nearby area.

Citizens upset

Now, the Lady Hill-Urva Stores concrete road is getting ready as the shoulder roads are prepared for laying the interlocking pavements. This road had over 35 trees. But the corporation has not made any provision for planting trees on this road and citizens are upset about it. According to the corporation engineers, the interlocking pavements will be built in less than a week's time and then it is hard to plant any trees.

Mangalore City Corporation tree officer Manjunath Shetty said he is aware of the heavy denudation of greenery in the city, but proper planning seems to be lacking to make the city greener. Although the department has the funding under the social forestry scheme, it is difficult to implement it with the corporation not having any specific programme.

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