Citizens and environmentalists have started sharing location details of potential green pockets with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation through its online complaint portal after the civic body claimed that the population of trees hasn’t increased in the last four years.
BMC’s ESR Report Sparks Debate
On August 21, BMC released its ‘Environmental Status Report’ (ESR) for 2024-25 on its website, claiming that it has planted 20,044 trees in the city and suburbs in the year concerned. However, green activists highlighted that the total number of trees in the city hasn’t increased from 29.75 lakhs since ESR 2021-22. A civic official had told The Free Press Journal that, "There isn’t much space left for new tree plantations."
Activists Question Plantation Data
Environmental activists have raised doubts over the veracity of the plantation drive, pointing out that numerous trees were felled in recent years and alleging that the civic body may be recycling old figures. However, a lot of citizens and activists have been sharing suggestions with the BMC for barren land that can turn into potential green pockets.
Portal as an Unconventional Channel
Kevin Pinto (46), a resident of Andheri (E), started the movement of sharing pictures and location details about the spots where more trees can be planted. While there is an absence of a systemic channel to share the suggestions, he has been sharing the suggestions on the complaint portal on BMC’s website. Pinto claimed that he has been using the method to share suggestions with the civic body for quite a few years now and he sees action against the suggestions.
“I have been using this portal to share suggestions related to garbage burning as well as plantation and it has worked. The officials come down to survey the site and resolve the issue. Although this is not the conventional way of sharing suggestions with the BMC, the message goes to the concerned officials, who act upon it at the end of the day. Until we get a proper channel to share citizens’ requests, this method can be really helpful,” said Pinto.
However, not all the suggestions have received a good response from the civic body. Kay Nair, a resident of Kandivali (E), said, “After coming to know about Kevin’s way of sharing suggestions, I also shared details about a few places where there can be more tree covers but haven’t heard back from BMC yet. This also depends upon how proactive officials we have at the ward level. I was born and brought up in this locality and have seen this locality turning from a forested area to a concrete jungle”
Green Pockets Identified Across Suburbs
Natasha Perreira, a resident of Bandra, said, “There is enough space in Mumbai to plant more trees but the BMC has been sacrificing these land parcels along with the green cover to the builders for their own selfish profits. A few years back, I had identified various barren land parcels in Bandra, Khar, Santacruz and Juhu, which could have been turned into green pockets but today more than half of them have been given to builders.”
