MARGAO
Did the district authorities identify the 135 trees for cutting/trimming in the Margao Municipal area sans Forest Department’s opinion and solely from the disaster point of view.
Even as questions have been raised over the rationale behind the decision to identify as many as 135 trees either for trimming or cutting in the Margao Municipal area, Salcete Mamlatdar Prataprao Gaonkar has said the trees were identified solely from the disaster point of view. The Salcete Mamlatdar and his officials have conducted a survey of the number of trees posing danger to the public in the Margao Municipal area on the directives of district Collector, Ruchika Katyal after cyclone Tauktae left a trail of destruction in the State.
In fact, citizens have questioned the yardstick to identify the trees as posing danger and whether Forest Department had cleared the cutting or trimming of the 135 trees.
When this question was posed to the Salcete Mamlatdar, he said the trees were identified by a team comprising of talathis and fire services and the cutters who will be engaged to carry out the work.
He conceded that the forest officials were not roped in the identification as the job was carried out from the disaster point of view. “We did not rope in the forest officials to ascertain whether the tree will fall or not. We took into consideration the question whether the tree will come down leading to disaster,” he said.
