Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: After a brief tussle over who should preside over the committee, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has finally constituted the city’s new tree authority – the panel tasked with safeguarding Mumbai’s green cover.
A 13-member tree authority was constituted and their names announced during the general body meeting of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) general body meeting on March 30. The municipal commissioner is the chairperson of the tree authority, and the chairperson of the market and garden committee is an ex-officio member. The next step will be to nominate experts to the committee.
The formation of the tree authority was delayed by a couple of weeks due to differences over who would preside as tree officer. According to civic sources, differences arose between superintendent of gardens Jitendra Pardeshi and deputy municipal commissioner (garden) Ajitkumar Ambi over who would be nominated to the post.
The civic administration finally went with Pardeshi, after he cited Supreme Court (SC) orders. The tree authority is an important civic committee, taking decisions on the city’s tree cover, including permissions to cut trees and the planting of new ones through the civic gardens department.
The role of the tree authority came into sharp focus in 2019, when the government sought to build a car shed for the metro’s Line 3 in the Aarey forest.
