Admin allows uprooting of 17 ‘unsafe’ Chinars in Srinagar college

Srinagar, Mar 22: Amid government’s claims for preserving Chinars, a college in Srinagar, has, after getting due permission from the district administration, felled over a dozen of these majestic trees standing tall in its premises for decades.
As many as 17 Chinar trees have been partially or entirely chopped off at SP College here during the last 4 days.
The college authorities say all the chinars had “decayed” after 2014 floods and needed to be cut-off.
Professor Khurshid Khan, Principal SP College told The Kashmir Monitor that post 2014 floods many Chinar trees in the college started “drying” and there was no sign of their “rejuvenation”.
“The branches of the trees started falling and it posed safety threat to the students and the people around,” he said, adding that to avoid any “unfortunate accident we approached the government for acquiring permission to uproot the Chinars”.
The Principal claimed that the vehicle of one of their faculty member was completely damaged when a branch of one of the chinars fell on it.
An order issued by the Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar reads: “After conducting on spot survey of the decayed Chinar, government on January 23, 2019 directed to uproot the only identified dry Chinar existing in the premises of the college.”
The survey was conducted by the department of floriculture which recommended uprooting 17 Chinar trees that “are completely dry” and “light pruning” of another three such trees.
Speaking to The Kashmir Monitor, Dr Arshid Jehangir, Environmentalist at Kashmir University, said it is legally permitted to uproot the tree only if it poses a threat.
“But if we have to uproot one Chinar, we need to plant 10 more as a compensation for our cause,” he added.
The number of Chinars has reduced drastically in the last few decades.
According to reports, the number in Kashmir in the 70s was around 40,000 but today it has been reduced to a meagre 5,000.
The majestic tree was brought to Kashmir by the Mughals. Emperor Akbar planted Chinars in the valley in 1586.