50-year-old banyan tree hacked sans proper papers

KOLKATA: A banyan tree — more than 50 years old — in south Kolkata’s Raja Basanta Roy Road was hacked till locals challenged the labourers and asked them to show the forest department permission. The labourers and their supervisors, who claimed to have been engaged by Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), later fled the spot. Residents suspect that a local temple trust must have surreptitiously engaged them with KMC officials looking the other way.

However, locals said by the time it came to their notice, the damage was done and bird nests were also found to have been broken.“By the time we mustered courage to protest and challenged them to show necessary clearances, it was quite late. By that time 80% of its canopy was lost,” said Somendra Mohan Ghosh, a Sarat Bose Road resident, who noticed it during his morning walk and raised an alarm.
The tree was located between the intersections of Raja Basanta Road, Sarat Bose Road and Lake View Road. “This tree along with another banyan tree created a canopy arch across the road, helping us to beat the heat during summer. Suddenly, with the canopy gone, the area has become hotter. We are reading about heat-island, but we are experiencing it now,” said Basanti Saha, a Raja Basanta resident.
Arati Mukherjee, a bird lover, was furious. “Even yesterday, I heard chirping of birds. Suddenly, there is a complete silence. I am aghast by the insensitivity of our civic authority, which keeps hacking trees mercilessly.” The locals were so fond of the two trees that they thought of getting them married.
“The tree which was hacked today is aged more than 50 years. The tree reminds me of my younger days. Hacking the three is like deleting my precious memories,” said 90-year-old Renubala De, a local resident. Locals said that the temple has its parking lot in its backyard. The tree was reportedly hacked to make way for easy movement of cars. Repeated calls to the phone number of the temple remained unanswered.
Dipika Roy, another resident, said, “I have checked with the KMC, they denied their involvement. We suspect that the temple body, a private trust, must have engaged the labourer. If this continues, no tree will survive human greed.” TOI also checked with KMC to find that no such order was issued by the parks and gardens department.