Committee invalid, docket unscientific: Residents rip into PMC’s plan to fell 163 trees in Balewadi for riverfront project

Pune: Anger, anguish and alarm swept through Aundh’s 500-seat Bharatratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Auditorium on Monday, as residents tore into PMC’s plan to fell 163 of 689 trees along the Mula riverbank in Balewadi for a riverfront project. At the packed public hearing, citizens questioned both the legality of the process and the scientific basis of the tree-felling docket, alleging that even heritage trees were included.

Many attendees said they took leave from work or postponed medical appointments to attend the hearing, which they alleged was deliberately scheduled on a Monday morning. “The residents should be informed at least five working days in advance about the hearings, which was not done. Many who sent objections were not even informed,” an attendee said.

The residents demanded that the hearing be cancelled as the tree committee had not been reconstituted after the civic body elections held in Jan 2026, making the ongoing process invalid. Sus Road resident Pushkar Kulkarni said, “As per law, the authority must have a total of 15 members, including the municipal commissioner, seven elected representatives and seven members from civil society, NGOs and experts. How long will PMC commissioner Naval Kishore Ram hold the administrative power? Without a functional and representative body, decisions to cut or transplant trees are highly questionable.”

Kulkarni also flagged procedural lapses. “While the original docket of March 26 listed 151 trees for felling and 538 for transplantation, the current proposal involves feeling of 163 trees. As per due process, any such revision requires a fresh docket and public notification, which was not done. Therefore, this hearing should be cancelled till a revised docket is properly published,” he said.

Prajakta Mahajan, a volunteer with Pune River Revival, a citizens’ group, highlighted discrepancies in tree identification and classification. “In one case, a mango tree has been wrongly listed as a cluster fig. In two cases, mango trees clearly over 50 years old have not been classified as heritage trees and are included in the felling list. These are just sample cases and show that the docket is riddled with mistakes and needs to be scrapped and redone,” she said.

Mahajan alleged that PMC was estimating tree age based on height and girth instead of following scientific methods.

Shailaja Deshpande, founder-director of Jeevitnadi, said the riverbank areas of all rivers, including Mula, Mutha and Mula-Mutha, were currently being reviewed by a state govt expert advisor committee to determine whether they qualified as “deemed forest land”, following Supreme Court directions in a case filed by Ashok Kumar Sharma and others against Union govt.

She said the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) had also issued directions to state govt on the matter last Aug. The Maharashtra State Biodiversity Board later asked the Pune forest department to comply with these directions, and in Jan 2026, the CEC sought an action taken report from the state based on directions. “Given these proceedings, we demand that this hearing be declared void and cancelled immediately as any deviation would constitute a blatant violation of the SC mandates, warranting immediate judicial intervention,” she said.

The hearing was presided over by Vijay Naikal, assistant municipal commissioner for the Aundh-Baner Ward, in the absence of the PMC commissioner. Naikal rejected the allegations, saying all procedures were being followed. “The tree authority is valid. The docket is valid too. Everything is being done as per rules. All the objections raised during the meeting will be documented and forwarded to the authority,” he said, assuring that a recommendation would be made to constitute the tree authority at the earliest.

His responses drew criticism from attendees, many of whom said the purpose of a public hearing was to address objections rather than merely record them. “We submitted objections last month too. The hearing is meant for answers. If you’re only noting them again, what is the point?” a participant said.