The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has issued a tender for the preservation and upkeep of trees around Hanging Gardens and Malabar Hill. This comes weeks after Mumbai's guardian minister, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, declared that the century-old water reservoir at Malabar Hills will not be demolished.
As per reports, the tender was put out last week. The goal is to make sure that all fully grown trees on the hillslopes are clipped. This will prevent landslides or tree collapses during the ongoing monsoon season.
The contractor will make a list of all the current trees. Trees with heavy branches will be noted. No new trees will be cut. The tender’s purpose is to preserve the existing trees. There are many trees on the Malabar Hills slope. These trees will be trimmed to prevent them from becoming overweight and collapsing after heavy rainfall.
The government also insisted that any dead trees found during the study would be removed. A few years ago, a wall collapsed due to a landslip caused by dead trees failing to hold the soil. Removing dead trees will help avoid such disasters.
Last year, the BMC proposed to remove the 137-year-old Malabar Hill reservoir due to its poor structural condition. This reservoir provides water to the entire South Bombay areas.
However, locals opposed BMC's plan. Dismantling the reservoir would have required cutting down 389 trees. After several months of discussion, Lodha, who is also the local MLA for Malabar Hill, announced that the reservoir would only receive partial repairs instead of being demolished.
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