Is it a fact that the BJP-led government never called the coconut plant a “grass” or a “palm”? Just declassification of the coconut from the “tree” category does not make it a palm or grass. The Government is facing a hit through social media and cartoons as well.
The Goa Preservation of Trees (amendment) Bill, introduced during the Winter Session of the State Legislative Assembly last month, has nowhere mentioned that the coconut would be called a palm or grass. Forest Minister, Rajendra Arlekar, in fact on repeated occasions has clarified that scientists and botanists feel that the coconut is a palm.
“We never called the coconut a palm or grass. Our amendment bill also does not say so. I have been saying that botanists and scientists feel that the coconut is a palm, and I presume that they must have said it somewhere and this has been used by opponents to politicize the issue,” Arlekar clarified once again.
“Even today we call the coconut a tree and not a palm. It is just that we have removed it from the ‘tree’ category brining it in under the Agriculture sector,” the Minister added.
The Bill speaks that section 2 of the Principal Act, for clause ( J ) the following clause shall be substituted, namely:- “(j) “tree” means any woody plant whose branches spring and are supported upon the trunk or the body and whose trunk or body is not less than ten centimeters in diameter at a height of one meter from the ground level”
