The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s Tree Authority has approved a plan affecting 128 trees for the redevelopment of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, allowing 56 trees to be felled and 72 to be transplanted. The decision has also triggered questions about whether the civic body can properly track compensatory plantations from earlier tree-felling permissions.
The proposal, submitted by the Railway Land Development Authority, was approved at a Tree Authority meeting on Friday, November 13. Under the plan, the RLDA has proposed planting 2,463 new trees within 15 days as compensation for the 56 trees approved for felling.
The redevelopment of CSMT, one of Mumbai’s most significant railway and heritage precincts, requires the removal or relocation of trees located within the project area. The approved plan distinguishes between trees that will be felled and those that the authority has permitted for transplantation.
The scale of the proposed compensatory plantation is substantially larger than the number of trees approved for felling. However, the decision has not settled concerns about how such commitments are monitored after permission is granted. Former mayor and Opposition Leader Kishori Pednekar questioned the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s records of plantations promised under previous tree-felling and pruning permissions.
Pednekar asked where trees planted during earlier compensatory drives were located and whether the civic body had maintained records showing how many survived. She also raised concerns about the monitoring of commitments made by agencies seeking permission to remove or prune trees.
The issue is significant because compensatory plantation is not limited to the act of planting saplings. It also requires agencies and civic authorities to identify plantation sites, maintain records and establish whether the trees remain alive over time. The concerns raised at the meeting put the focus on the accountability process surrounding permissions rather than only on the number of replacement trees proposed.
The RLDA’s proposal now places responsibility on the project authority to carry out the plantation commitment within the stipulated 15-day period. The BMC Tree Authority will remain the civic body responsible for permissions concerning tree felling, transplantation and compensatory plantation within Mumbai.
The decision also highlights the administrative challenge of balancing large public infrastructure and redevelopment projects with the city’s existing tree cover. In this case, the approval concerns a railway redevelopment project at a major transport node, while the plantation commitment and monitoring of survival rates will determine how effectively the environmental compensation is implemented.
The immediate next step is the proposed planting of 2,463 trees by the RLDA within 15 days. Questions raised about earlier plantations will require the BMC to account for the locations, records and survival status of trees planted under previous compensatory commitments.
