BENGALURU: With over 85 private agencies openly advertising their services of felling and pruning trees across Bengaluru, the BBMP Forest Division has begun to track each one of them, and has also issued a notice to local search engine, Justdial, to inform its clients who provide these services to get the forest department’s permission, before embarking any such endeavours.
Speaking to TNSE, BLG Swamy, Deputy Conservator of Forests, BBMP, said there have been complaints that some private agencies are resorting to cutting of trees, without bringing the matter to the notice of range forest officers of the concerned zones. They are also allegedly collecting money for the service from the public.
“To end this illegality, we have started to check the veracity of the agencies, ascertaining if they are registered with the BBMP in the past to carry out such tasks, follow protocols, and others. The BBMP forest department has written to Justdial, asking it to check with it clients about mandatory registration with the BBMP forest division for cutting trees,” said Swamy.
Urban conservationist, who is popularly known as the ‘Tree Doctor’, Vijay Nishanth, said some commercial business outlets, for want of clear visibility of their establishments, resort to getting rid of trees, which tend to block the view. “Since their act is illegal, they do not follow compensatory afforestation, therefore reducing the city’s green cover,” he opined.
“The felling of trees for any purpose has to come before the BBMP forest officers, and if the number of trees to be felled is 50, then it will come before the tree committee. Since many owners and shopkeepers want one or two trees removed from their premises, they will not bother to contact tree officers of the BBMP for its removal. This has led such agencies to flourish, through illegal tree-felling,” said Nishanth.
He added that recently, a jewellery shop owner in Jayanagar had axed a full-grown mahogany tree for better visibility, and many owners in BBMP limits assume that the trees in their houses or complex premises belong to them, and they are free to cut them at will. “According to the Tree Preservation Act, any tree on government or private land belongs to the forest department, and owners must get permission from the BBMP tree officers, if they wish to remove that tree, failing which, they can be penalised,” warned Nishanth.