About 450 silk cotton trees ritually trimmed in Adajan

SURAT: There's nothing more contradictory than this: the city is witnessing heatwave and needs trees for protection from the sun, but the garden department of

Surat Municipal Corporation

(SCM) goes about trimming them like always. In the past two weeks, teams of garden department have chopped some 450

silk cotton trees

on Anand Mahal Road

in Adajan

. But does the SMC have any option?


The answer is no because silk cotton falls from the trees into the eyes of commuters driving vehicles on the road, making them vulnerable to road accidents.

Trees on this stretch is regularly trimmed to prevent accidents, but experts argue that this species should not have been planted on this road at all.

“It is painful to see trimming of trees during summer, but there is no other option. Had there been some other tree species here, it would have been better, particularly during the summer season,” said a shop owner. Local people have in the past demanded that the civic body replace silk cotton trees in the area with some other species.

“It is necessary to trim the 450 trees to prevent accidents. We had planted saplings of other species in the gaps between two trees with an idea to replace the silk cotton trees, but didn’t get success,” said S J Gautam, superintendent of garden department, SMC.

The civic body had gradually replaced silk cotton trees with other species on a portion of Udhna Magdalla Road. Silk cotton tree was preferred because its growth is faster compared to other species. The civic body no more plants silk cotton trees along side the roads.

“SMC should replace these trees with some other species. So many tree species are available for plantation in road dividers. When SMC has done this in some places, it can very well do it in Adajan as well,” said Darshan Desai, volunteer of Prayas, a non-government organization.


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