KOTTAYAM: Gone are the days when lush red flowers heralded the arrival of the month of May, when people used to relax under the cool shade of the ‘Gulmohar’ trees. The district is gradually losing this blossoming, flamboyant tree cover as they are being cut down in the name of various developmental activities such as construction or widening of roads.
As many as eight Mayflower trees were chopped down across Kottayam which tops the list of districts in the state in cutting down trees in public lands during the last 12 months as per the details collected by K Binu, a green activist, under the Right to Information Act from the Social Forestry Division here. Most of the trees were felled here for the development of roads by the Kerala State Transport Project. Some of the Mayflower trees that were axed for the same in the town were one each at Kodimatha Chira, Collectorate, District Animal Husbandry Department campus and Pallippurathukavu here.
It is not only the case of Gulmohar, but as many as 2,552 trees, including 200-year-old banyan trees were felled in the district last year.