NAGPUR: If Nagpur is no longer one of the greenest cities that it was not very long ago, the culprit is easily identified. It is the garden department of Nagpur Municipal Corporation. Though hundreds of trees have been illegally cut in city in the last three years, the garden department has sent notices to exactly seven parties. Not just that, it has let the matters lie just there. Not a single person or organisation has been prosecuted for cutting down a tree without permission.

Even in those cases, the department responsible for enforcing the rules and ensuring greenery in the city acted only because of media reports. It is like the police watching crimes being committed openly and deciding to look the other way.