Swanky showrooms vs Mumbai's greenery

     

Driving round the city iv come across a large number of dead barks of trees paying homage to its once glorious self..iv highlighted the impotence of the BMC in several of my previous article...the tree authority is a sham ...a body that was made to protect trees has committed itself to destroying the last few green lungs that the city has left.Tree Authority of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation gave the green signal to cut 2,000 trees for several infrastructure projects in the city, and transplantation of 2,000.

Set up to protect and preserve the city's green cover, the Authority-comprising politicians, bureaucrats and tree experts-has according to environmentalists become more of a mute spectator in its depletion, granting chopping orders without checking whether replanting or transplanting is being followed. Reasons given for the green slaughter range from road-widening to private projects most of them malls,showrooms etc....The BMC Tree Census Says Mumbai’s Green Population Has Doubled From 9.5 Lakh In 1998 To 19 Lakh Now. But What Else Can You Expect, Ask Environmentalists, When Even Weeds And Dead Trees Are Counted And Parameters Are Changed To Inflate Figures

How happy were you when you got to know some fancy clothing brand opened a huge outlet in your vicinity?...did you think it was awesome that an electronic mega store put 1000 plasma tvs on its wall beside your house? but spare a thought for the once majestic green being who held its ground for decades before money hungry cooperates mercilessly poisoned it...! it's a rather sickening feel to look at trees that have turned black shorn of the green. The colour of the wood is weather beaten and there are several of them standing dead scattered all around the city.
in this article ill share a some sad images of trees murdered in front of some popular shopping destinations in Mumbai:-

1)The Honda showroom: (opp Lakshmi industrial estate): This car showroom on the main linq road near Lokhandwala has 3-4 shinny cars majestically parked on little podiums behind a big glass wall...soon after opening up they realized that two coconut trees in front of their showroom was blocking the traffic from getting a clear view of their cars....on the pretext to trimming the coconuts were topped off ruthlessly .2 trees that stood their ground for the last quarter of a century were suddenly in the dark of the night "trimmed"

2)Sony Mony (irla,vile parle w showroom):when this massive electronic mega store in Mumbai opened its shutters so close to my house i admit i was happy....but wad followed was a series of events that can only be termed sad.A huge rain tree graced the pavement in front of the mall...and even with their 1000 lcd tvs and fancy boards visibility of the shop was marred by the presence of this grand tree....and once again in the dead of the night the tree was destroyed...the roots burnt off with some acid and now on every festival green lights are wrapped around the dead bark of this tree to get people into the festive spirits.

3)The Mango showroom (linking road,Santacruz):Sarita absolutely adores this brand,so does my sister Shaurat...and both of them must have had smiles from end to end when they saw this massive store opening up in closer to home....driving past it everyday we looked at it ....twas to open in a few weeks ....

4)N.M.I.M.S(juhu,vile parle w):When a prestigious educational institution went in for a total over haul of their premises sign boards with illustrations of the grand 10 floor structure with a sky walk was put up...but what i noticed was the 35-40 year old royal palms that lined the college near its retaining wall were not part of the drawing...back then i thaught it must have been negligence of the animators who made the drawing but 15 bottle palms were hacked brutally and whats left of them is just their gray trunks with their tops hacked off mostly toppled by one of their cairns....

5)willingon stores (santacruz):its funny how these were the people crying some on months back that their landlord(some builder who is looking to develop the property) has made plans to make buildings which are not eco friendly and over 60 trees would give way for the swanky new complexes proposed....the shopkeepers dint think twice before hacking of a peepal tree present in front of their shop on the road....but the tree though hacked has partially sprouted leaves...risen from the dead...lets hope they let it grow this time

6)Vashi railway station premises & Raghuleela mall where two dead palm trees and another one on the side road with several others portray a saga of destruction that has not been noticed by the civic body, and not taken care of. The approach has been rather heartless to remove natives and plant fresh expensive ones from some random south Indian villages.

7)Bandra reclamation: is a hot bed for these dead carcases ...the company in charge for creating a green space there has gone about chopping every native tree on the coast and replacing them with either a bottle palm or a foxtail palm....

.......ill keep adding more names as i spot them...for now these i post....if uv spotted any of these giant show rooms with dead tree trunks ushering u in....let me know ill add the store to the list.