Gurgaon spares axe, Shifts trees

Gurgaon: Greenery is very often sacrificed to make way for growth.
But in fast growing Gurgaon, landowners like Rajneesh Dhawan- who wants to construct a house without felling two giant Peeple trees in his Sushant Lok Plot-have been offered a guilt-free alternative.

Called tree transplantation, the idea involves the use of machines and the expertise of the forest department to dig out fully-grown trees and transplant them to a new location.

In a recent case, six peepal trees were shifted from residential plots in DLF City, Sushant Lok and Sector 52 and shifted ‘alive’ to alternate sites.

Four trees were more than 100 years old and two were past the quarter of a country mark. It took five days and about 25,000 for each tree to be transplanted.

“Permission to cut trees comes from the department’s headquarters in Chandigarh. It takes more than a year to come and sometimes the request can be denied,” said Vivek Kamboj, president of Haryali, an NGO that assists the department and landowners in the exercise.

When Dhawan sought permission to fell the trees, forest officials promptly “offered him the solution that was instant and environment friendly”, Kamboj said.

“The exercise involves digging four feet deep around the trunk’s base. The roots are then cut very carefully with the help of experts from our organization. The tree is then carefully lifted with hydraulic machines and transported through tucks to the destination. Root enhancers are also used to preserve the roots,” he added