Navi Mumbai: Nature enthusiasts in Navi Mumbai have alleged that a almost 30-year-old Peepal tree on the road median along the Airoli-Mulund Link Road was dying mysteriously and a hoardingg has sprung up at the location. Activists allege commercialisation of the city’s landscape discouraged greenery, turning it into a concrete jungle with no shade and diminishing oxygen levels amid heavy pollution. They alledged that fully grown trees were being poisoned to kill them systematically to pave the way for giant hoardings along roads.Local resident Dinesh Singh said he alerted senior officials in the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation by email and was awaiting a response for the last couple of months. “I wrote a letter to the NMMC top officials highlighting my concern about the grown-up tree that is being killed to allow a large hoarding for clear visibility of advertisement. I believe it’s a sabotage to eliminate the almost 30-foot-tall tree, which was providing shade and oxygen as well,” said Singh.Activists said they complained about similar incidents for a long time but alleged officials did not act. A civic official said the matter was serious and would be examined at the earliest through the concerned department. Nature lovers reiterated that several new hoardings were coming up at various places and said tree branches were often chopped unmindfully to display them better. Singh said, “It took 20-30 years for every tree on the road dividers to grow. They are not only aesthetic beauty but help reduce air pollution and act as temperature control. The authorities are least bothered about the importance of green cover against revenue gain through hoardings. Officials think that visibility of advertisement has become more important than the trees.”“I doubt there is a conspiracy to kill grown-up trees in order to install hoardings out of which the civic body will gain a good amount. This is not a case in isolation. Such tactic is being adopted to clear the green patches for the sake of clear display of advertisement,” said activist Sameer Tupe.Environmentalists alleged that hoardings were erected after trees were poisoned and dried so they could be removed more easily. “These tricks have become a common practice by the miscreants and people having vested interests. Now it’s seen in the extended format all over the city,” said nature lover Dhananjay Suvarna, asking who would stop it. “My worry is if it doesn’t stop now, in another two years this entire stretch of Mulund-Airoli Link will become a hoarding zone,” added Suvarna.“Two new hoardings have come up along the Mulund-Airoli Link. A couple of years ago, a grown-up tree on the Sector 5 signal in Airoli disappeared. I thought it may be due to age, but recently remaining trees in the stretch of 200 metres disappeared with similar patterns, with hoardings appearing on either side of the road. Societies get paid in lakhs annually toward hoarding rent, which is why they don’t complain,” said Singh.
