In the sensitive Mahul area of the city, infamous for its uninhabitable environment and poisonous air and already in a controversy over housing, the BMC now plans to remove 228 trees to enable better roads. The notice by the Tree Authority (TA) states that trees will be removed for improvement of Mahul and Mysore Colony roads.

This has raised the hackles of activists who fear a worse eventuality in the already-polluted Mahul. In the last year, the BMC published a notice to remove 14,518 trees, three times more than the average number. And on the very first day of this year, it published a notice to remove 244 trees across the city for 30 projects. On the second day, there was a notice for removing 228 trees (cutting 201 and transplanting 27 trees) in Mahul.