Indian Express 25.01.2010
BMC to begin planting Andhra trees this week
This week, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will begin its ambitious project of planting the first batch of the 7,200 trees purchased from Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh in December. Nearly 3,000 trees will soon adorn the city roads across Marine Drive, Worli Seaface, Andheri-Kurla Road and Andheri-Dahisar Road in the first phase of the BMC’s tree plantation drive.
And if the recent greening of the Mumbai airport in its Sahar and Santacruz terminals are anything to go by, the trees could see a 100 percent survival rate, provided they are being taken care of.
The Mumbai International Airport Private Ltd (MIAL) had early last year purchased nearly 1,000 trees from South India to beautify the airport. Today, the organisation states that all its trees have survived with just basic maintenance at minimal cost.
“MIAL is undertaking a comprehensive landscaping exercise at the airport. We had procured around 1,000 trees , most of them from Rajahmundry and some from Chennai in 2009. The change is already evident at both the domestic and international terminals,” Manish Kalghatgi, official spokesperson of MIAL said.
Like the BMC, MIAL too purchased only trees of Indian origin like the Foxtail Palm, Date Palm, Ficus Benjamina, Plumeria, etc, from AP. While the organisation refused to comment on the procurement cost, Kalaghatgi stated that trees were more expensive in Mumbai. “They were brought from AP because the diversity of specimens and the number of trees required for the landscaping were not available in Mumbai,” he added.
MIAL said no special care is required for the airport trees. “Regular maintenance such as pruning, manuring, watering, etc, is carried out. We have a dedicated team of five horticulturists to look after the landscaping at the airport,” Kalaghatgi said.
Deputy Municipal Commissioner Chandrashekar Rokade said, “We have made arrangements for regular monitoring, watering and maintaining of the trees. Every ward has a horticulturist and a tree officer who will be responsible for the up keep of the new plantations.”
Rokade said, while 3,000 trees — like some species of palms and barringtonias — would be planted now, about 4,000 will be kept in the Byculla zoo nursery to be planted after the monsoons.
Environmentalist and tree expert Dr Ashok Kothari of the Bombay Natural History Society said out that the tree plantations may be a positive step by the BMC in expanding the green lung of the city. “Three to four-year-old trees are usually sturdier than saplings and have a better survival rate. However, the BMC should choose species according to specific areas (for example, barringtonias grow well on the sea side).” Mangroves expert Rishi Aggarwal added, “We should take this as an experiment and observe the results
