PUNE: : Environmental activists have raised concerns about the dumping of construction debris  along a 3.7km Mula-Mutha river  stretch from Bund Garden  to Sangamwadi, which has been marked for the PMC’s riverfront development project.

Debris covers the entire left bank of the river stretch, the activists said, adding that this leads to trees getting uprooted, roots loosening up or several plants and shrubs dying. They added that the Pune Municipal Corporation  (PMC) is not taking their objections into account, especially when the National Green Tribunal had directed the civic body to not fell any trees until an amendment to the Environment Clearance for the project is allowed by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). But the PMC has insisted that it is not in contempt of any order.

“The corporation is supposed to approach the State Tree Authority for permission to cut more than 50 trees for the project. In this case, they are planning beforehand so that by the time orders come and permission is granted, they can immediately chop the trees,” said environmental activist Sathya Natarajan.

“The trees and shrubs in the area are buried under the debris dumped by PMC. This weakens the tree, uproots it and in turn leads to a situation that we have been trying to avoid.”

The entire stretch from Bund Garden to Sangamwadi, overlooking Boat Club Road, is a visual of trees buried deep in mud, rocks and heavy debris. This contaminates the river too as construction debris can often be seen floating along the edges.

Natarajan added that satellite images of the area show the canopy of trees looking like a giant shrub. “But when we inspect the area, we see that the actual tree is buried and is a lot bigger than what is visible. This almost kills the tree,” he said.Observing from the Bund Garden bridge shows that the trees are completely buried by debris, he noted. “The right bank of the stretch is clear. We can see that they have mowed it down and added cylinders in which they have put in trees. The trees were already cut before we could take the matter up with the corporation,” the activist said.