Recover tree concrete demolition cost from firms: Calcutta high court

KOLKATA: Calcutta High Court has ordered Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to recover the cost of demolition of the concrete base around trees from the companies that have sponsored the concretization, preventing the root system of the trees from accessing water, air and soil. The KMC in its affidavit informed the HC that it has so far demolished 868 structures and requires a few more months to complete the task.
The division bench of Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee asked the KMC commissioner on September 13 to convey the order individually to every councillor of each ward so that such concretization of tree base does not happen anywhere.

The Calcutta HC on July 19 ordered demolition of all concrete base built around trees after a writ petition was filed on May 24 by Pradeep Kakkar, founder member of environment activist group People United for Better Living in Calcutta (PUBLIC). The petition sought prevention of any kind of construction around trees in future. Kakkar also wanted all the authorities concerned to comply with the Urban Greening Guidelines, 2014, in connection with construction of structures and concretization of pavements.

“Following our petition, KMC was given a month to complete the demolition. They filed an affidavit on September 13 saying they had demolished 868 structures so far. They also agreed with us in court that there was still more to be done,” said Kakkar.
“It is significant that the division bench has asked KMC to recover the cost of demolition from the corporate entities that sponsored the construction of the base around trees. It is not a difficult task to identify the corporate entities vis-a-vis concretized tree base as their emblems are printed on the structures,” said advocate Rituparna Chatterjee.
The oganization filed the petition after a large number of roadside trees were uprooted in squalls during the summer this year. It was found that many of the trees that fell had withered 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 work — 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 allows them to grow.
“These structures are not only destroying the city’s already-dwindling green cover, but are also putting pedestrians’ safety at risk,” said Chatterjee. The premise on which Kakkar built his argument was violation of Urban Greening Guidelines, 2014, a set of rules for urban landscaping and planting of saplings.