Hyderabad: Trees chopped in Jubilee Hills

Jubilee Hills: As many as 50 trees on the stretch at Apollo Hospital at Jubilee Hills were chopped down by the workers of Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TSSPDSCL) on Saturday, much to the displeasure of citizens and activists.

Citizens allege that when they asked the workers, they said they were acting as per their official's orders to cut these down. "The TSSPDCL should be sensitive towards chopping of the trees. it has to be pruned slightly and not brutally cut down the entire tree. Our CM encourages plantation and greenery, the cutting of the trees in this way has to be brought to his notice," said Robin Zaccheus, Social Activist.

When asked the District Forest Officer (DFO) V Venkateshwarlu he said, "The TSSPDCL is authorised to cut down small parts of branches for any development work but not big chunks, in order to cut down a tree they have send in an online request which is reviewed by the department."

Chopped branches not cleared

After the massive shedding of trees, the locals allege branches have been left at the site itself for the last two days. The TSSPDCL and the GHMC have been passing the ball in each other's court and no one is ready to take responsibility to clean up the branches.

When asked the Assistant Medical Officer of Health (AMOH) Khairatabad Zone Dr Ravikanth, he said, "According to the protocol, the TSSPDCL workers are supposed to pick up the branches after the shedding, which mostly they don't do even after multiple rounds of reminders." "The TSSPDCL is expected to dump the branches in the bins allotted by GHMC, but they don't even do that. Finally, the GHMC has to clean them up," he explained.