Srinivas Kamat
Over the November 4-6 weekend, we passed by the Kala Academy and were shocked to see about 6-8 feet of the edge of the pavement meeting the Campal road dug up by little over a foot on both sides of the road. Particularly at the pavement near the road facing gate of the Open Air Auditorium that has about three old rain trees, the roots of the trees had been exposed and laid raw. This was the status on Friday and on Sunday afternoon we saw some laborers covering up the soil again.
One does not understand why one should dig up to the roots in the first place and then cover it up again unless it is to accelerate the fragility of the already old and infirm tree. These trees have already been deprived of sustenance because the pavers put around them that stop the water from seeping down to the roots of the trees. On top of that you dig up the roots and expose them which seems to be just a method to hasten the death of the tree and then declare that given its position it is a hazard to public safety and therefore needs to be cut.
One of the old trees near these ones had been cut some months ago and the fate of these three old train trees seems to be destined the same way. The Campal avenue is one of the most beautiful and probably one of the last remaining avenues in Goa and instead of taking care of the trees in this area our municipal authorities seem bent upon destroying it. The Forest Department should take note of these incidents against the green cover at significant locations around Goa and take strict action to stop this in a timely manner. They should not wait for complaints to be filed and then ‘look into’ the problem, which process by the time it is complete, will also see the death of the trees that have been hacked. If the digging up on both sides of the Campal avenue as referred above is because of the IFFI when a lame effort is made to show that there is greenery around the venues by planting sapling just for the duration of the week long film festival then it is a silly exercise since we have seen over the years that after the festival is over no one bothers to water these plants and they are allowed to wither and die. However, this time around it does not seem the digging exercise to be just to plant saplings since they have gone deeper and a more diabolical motive seems to be afoot.
Will whoever is responsible for the digging up at the Campal avenue firstly, stop this activity forthwith and secondly, take action to provide proper treatment for the trees like above which have been exposed to danger?
