The Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered to demolish all the concrete base built around the trees on the city roads so that the roots could have access to water, soil, and air. The Kolkata Municipal corporation has been asked to submit an action taken the report by August by the division of Chief Justice T B N Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee of HC. The civic body has also been asked to take the help of the police department in case they faced any threats.
The bench rebuked the corporate entities, for sponsoring these concretizations and also sticking their logos on those structures. When one of those corporate entities whose logo was discovered on the tiles towards the end of the tree, was questioned about their move, the firm claimed they carried out the construction, concurrent with the civic body. But the KMC counsel denied the allegations stating no such permission was ever granted to any of the agency.
The order came close on the heels of a similar order that the National Green Tribunal passed in mid-June against concretization of trees in Delhi. The Calcutta HC gave the order following a writ petition filed on May 24 by Pradeep Kakkar, founder member of environment activist group People United for Better Living in Calcutta (PUBLIC), seeking the demolition of the concrete structures around the base of trees that choke the green giants to death. He also sought the prevention of any kind of construction around trees in the future. Kakkar also wanted all the authorities concerned to comply with the Urban Greening Guidelines, 2014, in connection with the construction of structures and concretization of pavements.
The writ was filed by the organization, after a large number of roadside trees uprooted in squalls during the summer this year. Most of these trees that fell were found to have faded due to weak roots and trunks as they could not draw nutrition from the ground, owing to the concretized base, the organization said. These concrete structures—carrying brand names of companies sponsoring the paving —made of non-permeable materials, like glaze tiles, reportedly prevented the proper functioning of the root system. In Kolkata, there is hardly any tree that gets proper space at the base that allowed them to grow.