THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Heritage Action Group has protested against the cutting of a heritage tamarind tree and desecration and defacement of the historic heritage Tonca pillar of 1859 in Tonca, Panjim.
The group has flayed the Corporation of City of Panjim (CCP) and Smart City for not protecting architectural and natural heritage of the city.
The group flayed the CCP and the Smart City works for cutting the 150-year-old tamarind tree in Tonca for road work.
Historian Prajal Sakhardande said, “This was the very tree that we saved in 2004 from being cut to make way for haphazard development work. It has been cut now. Tonca pillar of 1859 has also been defaced during the construction of a drain. It has to be saved. We have written to the CCP and informed them that this pillar was built to commemorate the way to Raj Bhavan.”
Daniel D'Souza, President of Botanical Society of Goa said, “For so many years, this tree was here. I don't think by cutting a tree we can call this the work of the Smart City.”
“The people in the city will face scorching heat waves with the amount of trees that are being cut and the trees that were lost during Taukte Cyclone,” he said.
“I contacted the authorities to save the tree but my pleas fell on deaf ears. Smart City does not mean destroying heritage trees and structures but should be by working a way around them,” he said.
Group member Jack Sukhija said, “In the age of climate change, trees should have been saved. Except for a couple of consultations, there has been no effort on the part of the CCP or the government to take people into consideration while planning works of Smart city," he said.
