05 January,2010 09:38 AM IST | | Chandran Iyer
Pune Municipal Corporation granted permission to trim trees to make way for a massive stage at the S P College ground for a four-day Art of Living workshop, despite High Court ruling against cutting trees
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the Art of Living (AOL) guru, has been a crusader of Mission Green Earth and believes in planting trees to make the earth a better place to live. But, unfortunately volunteers from his organisation have gone against the tenets of their own master.
AOL volunteers have chopped huge branches of a tree near the S P College ground to make way for a giant stage for their guru, who is likely to give a public discourse here.
Anirudh Rane (name changed), a student of S P College, who witnessed the tree cutting, said, "I have great respect for Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji and his work. But I am shocked at the manner in which his own people have cut branches of trees in the vicinity of my college only to make a stage for him."
The AOL has organised a massive four-day programme in the city from Jan 12-15 that will be attended by nearly a lakh of his followers, including top politicians and film celebrities.
Only trimmed
The branches of the trees were chopped on Jan 3 to facilitate the construction of the stage.
The event manager of the AOL, Rastar, said, "We have not cut any trees, but only the branches and that too only after getting written permission from the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). This is because the branches were tilting towards the stage, which we are constructing to accommodate 2,500 people."
"To avert the possibilities of the trees from falling on the people we asked the PMC for permission which was granted," he added.
Garden Superintendent of PMC Ashok Ghorpade said, "The volunteers of AOL came to us seeking permission to trim the trees on the grounds that the branches were drooping on the place where they were constructing a stage. We asked them to give us a written application. We have giving them a nod to only trim trees."
The Other Side
The spokesperson of the AOL Kumkum Naren said, "Tree plantation has been an ongoing project of Art of Living for years. Last year alone 1.5 crore trees were planted and millions more will be planted in years to come. It is out of the question that a responsible NGO like ours would ever cut a tree. The tree's branches were risky so we had obtained the required permission to trim it."
She added, "We are doing a lot of educational activities to create awareness among the people about Green Earth. If by mistake somebody from AOL has cut trees or branches for the purpose of the function, then we take the entire responsibility and we promise to plant more trees. It is quite possible that some volunteers might have unknowingly done it, but we assure to rectify our error."
The law says...
The Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975 makes a better provision for trees in the urban areas by regulating felling of trees and providing for planting of adequate number of new trees in those areas.
This act states that no one can fell any tree or cause any tree to be felled, whether of ownership or otherwise, in an urban area without seeking the permission of the Tree Authority. Every act of chopping at different points of time, whether it is the same tree or different trees, constitutes a separate offence.
The penalty includes a minimum fine of Rs 1,000 and maximum of Rs 5,000 with imprisonment from a week to a year.
