While Mumbai’s green cover disappears with alarming alacrity, one tree is refusing to go down quietly. Just a few hundred metres from the municipal commissioner’s bungalow on Carmichael Road, a residents’ group is fighting to save a giant heritage banyan tree whose canopy of roots and branches has somehow survived the city’s relentless march from green to grey.The banyan stands like an arboreal ancestor watching many human absurdities unfold over the one-acre plot that was once earmarked for a children’s park but is now listed as ‘residential zone’ in the latest development plan because it was never acquired by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The plot now belongs to Mah-Hill Properties, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises. It was bought for Rs 170 crore last year from the heirs of the Gamadia family.Over the years, members of the Carmichael Road Residents Association have been writing regularly to various concerned authorities, including the Superintendent of Gardens and the Tree Authority. The association has requested a tree census of the heritage trees on the plot, invoking Sections 8 and 20 of the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975, which says that no one can chop down a tree on any land in an urban area, without the previous permission of the Tree Officer, even if they own the land. Significantly, according to the law, a tree is not treated merely as the property of the person who owns the land on which it stands. Its removal is a matter considered in the public interest.“If a tree is beyond 50 years of age, it becomes a heritage tree which needs to be protected,” says horticultural expert Robert Fernandes, who has worked closely with civic authorities. “If the developer is sensitive, they may be willing to save it by redesigning the construction around it. It depends on the location of the tree in the future building footprint.”Recently, residents in the neighbourhood got alarmed when they saw truckloads of debris being dumped in the land around the tree trunk, which they said can asphyxiate the tree and enable its demise. The association wrote to the municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide, who wrote back: “A proposal regarding the cutting/transplanting of trees obstructing the construction of a proposed residential building at the said site is currently under consideration by the Tree Authority Committee.”“This is one of the oldest open forested plots in the area,” says a member of the residents’ association. “It is ironic that this area is home to the highest taxpayers in the city and we can’t even ask for an open space to walk and breathe.”Large banyans significantly improve local air purity and absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide. A mature banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) produces about 274 litres of oxygen per day due to its vast leaf canopy and surface area. One of the banyan’s most remarkable qualities is that it creates a miniature ecosystem, especially in increasingly concrete cities. Its voluminous branches, aerial roots, hollows, bark, and canopy offer habitat and nesting sites for birds, bats, insects and other organisms. Its extensive root system helps hold soil together and allows rainwater to percolate into the ground. A large tree can also intercept rainfall in its canopy, slowing the movement of water and reducing runoff during heavy rains.Yet, in what many residents see as an inexplicable battle between the city’s lungs and its residents, trees are being allowed to rot and fall, and numerous open plots are slipping into a blur of concrete.
