Three trees were cut down in the city, for the second time in a month, on Thursday. This has angered green activists who urged the district administration to look into the matter.
On November 23, 13 trees were cut down for the construction of new police quarters near Gandhipuram. After 19 days, three trees have been chopped on Race Course Road with the permission of the Coimbatore Corporation.
N I Jalaludeen of Nature Conservation Society (NCS) said that while on one side political parties and students had been planting trees, on the other side big trees were being cut down for various purposes. In this case the Corporation gave permission to cut nine trees in the area stating that they were dead. But it was only one tree that was dead while eight were in good condition. “We should check if they got the permission of the revenue officials,” he said.
Green activists asked the District Collector to probe the matter and try to stop the cutting of trees in future. “I don’t remember if I gave any permission to cut down the nine trees on Race Course Road,” Gunasekaran, Revenue Division Officer, Coimbatore told Express.
When Corporation central zone assistant commissioner Ravi was contacted, he said that permission had been given to cut down nine dead trees in that area which could fall any time. “We took photos of the trees. Only after obtaining permission from the District Revenue Officer did we give permission, he said.