Costly palm trees planted by Amritsar MC wilted, being uprooted

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 2

Despite the opposition by city residents, the Municipal Corporation had planted costly palm trees on road medians last year. Now, the MC has uprooted many palm trees on Majitha Road as they had wilted.

However, MC officials claimed that this time the contractor, who planted the palm trees, would replace them with new ones free of cost, but next time the MC would have to pay for replacement and upkeep of these costly trees.

On the directions of former MC Commissioner Malwinder Singh Jaggi, the MC had planted around 100 palms on Madan Mohan Malviya Road and Court Road. Then more than 75 palm trees were planted on Majitha Road. Each tree had cost Rs 5,500.

First year, the MC recorded 7% causality on Majitha Road and 2% on MM Road and Court Road. “The causality rate of plants is 8% in general, but here it is less than 2% on two roads. More plants dried out on Majitha road and the contractor has uprooted these plants. Now he will plant new trees during monsoon to ensure their survival.

The causality is natural as palm is a plant of saline soil. Here, we witness 45 degrees Celsius temperature. These are perfect for 25-30 degrees Celsius. Moreover, it has been planted in the median of roads where trees face 5 degrees more heat, pollution, public and construction activity,” said Sandeep Singh, Superintending Engineer-cum-Horticulture in-charge of MC.

It is worth mentioning here that while advocating native trees several environmentalists and NGO activists opposed the MC move to plant palm trees on city roads.

The activists claimed that these trees are costly, which burden the tax payer’s money for its upkeep. Moreover, these do not provide any fruit, wood, shade like our native trees. The native trees need less budget and care and pays more to the environment than ornamental plants.

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#Environment #tree felling