Protecting our environment: Rare 30-year-old Devil tree to be chopped down

CDGK offici­als claim they don’t have the machin­ery to uproot, shift the plant.

KARACHI:

The City District Government Karachi’s (CDGK) parks and horticulture department claim that it does not have the machinery to safely uproot and replant an Alstonia tree planted in Liaquatabad 30 years ago. Another name for this species is the Devil Tree.

The 42-feet tall tree was planted by the late Mumtaz Begum at her house, No. 38/9 C-1 Area, Liaquatabad. The family sold the house several years ago but requested that the new owners protect the tree from being chopped down. But now the tree will be felled because the house is undergoing reconstruction.

Parks and horticulture officials visited the site to find a way to prevent the tree from being axed. It can only be saved if it is uprooted and replanted elsewhere.

A horticulture official explained that the tree is surrounded by a network of electric wires. “If it is uprooted, houses could be damaged,” he told The Express Tribune.

Another official, Abdul Hameed Khan, agreed but added that the department or for that matter, any other civic authority, did not have the machinery to uproot the tree.

“The tree belongs to the Alstonia species and is quite fragile. Special measures are required to safely uproot it and shift it to another place,” he said. “Alstonia trees are barely found in the city.”

The department’s director general, Liaquat Rajput, has assigned a team to visit the area and submit a report to see if the tree can be uprooted, but Khan was convinced that the old tree could not be saved.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2011.