The Times of India          26.11.2010

KMC puts eatery on notice for tree poisoning

KOLKATA: Kolkata Municipal Corporation on Thursday issued a notice to a food court owner on Syed Amir Ali Avenue for allegedly poisoning three sirish trees to death.

These trees were killed over the last six months, an investigation by KMC parks department revealed. The first tree was poisoned in May this year. Though a KMC team went to the spot and warned the food court owner, two more trees were poisoned in the same manner in last month, say sources. This time, KMC decided to send the management of the food court a notice seeking an explanation.

Debasish Kumar, MMiC parks department, told TOI that the owner of the food court was bound to give a reply on the mystery of the dead trees. What action will the KMC take? "Let us wait for their reply. If we are not satisfied, we may lodge an FIR with police," Kumar said.

KMC also has the right to revoke the trade licence of the food court. In 2001, the civic authorities had scrapped the trade licence of a well known restaurant on Sarat Bose Road after investigation proved that it had chopped down a full grown tree simply because the tree was blocking the view of the restaurant. "As a punitive step, we withdrew the trade license granted to the restaurant authorities for six months. After the restaurant tendered an unconditional apology, we lifted the ban," a senior official of the KMC parks department said.

In this case, a preliminary investigation by KMC revealed that the sirish trees had been poisoned. "We have received complaints and serious feedback on the killing of these trees from local residents. We are keeping the identities of the complainants a secret," an official said.

Environmentalists and green activists came down heavily on KMC for failing to protect the trees. "It is a crime to kill trees simply because they are obstructing the view of a food court," said environmentalist Banani Kakkar. "The civic authorities need to wake up and take stringent action against the offenders and set an example."

Green activist Mukuta Mukherjee also demands exemplary action against the owner of the food court. "Nobody has given them the right to kill trees. This is a criminal offence and needs to be dealt with accordingly," Mukherjee said.