Mumbai is known to pay scant regard to environment, when it comes to making way for development. But setting an example for the residents of the city is 37-year-old Sonal Kamdar Shah team member ACH, who has successfully battled to save a Christmas tree at her housing society in Altamount Road from being chopped down.

Following heavy rainfall in Mumbai, Christmas tree in the Ambuj House society had become loop sided and was on the verge of falling down. The residents of Giriraj Society that shares a boundary wall with the Ambuj House, alarmed with the situation, wrote to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) D ward office seeking permission to chop the tree down.

When Shah heard about the plans to chop the tree, she tried to approach NGOs and activists to try to save it but in vain. She then called local MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha who assured her that tree will be saved.

As per the BMC rules, if a tree poses danger to any private society, then the residents of the society can file an application at the ward office and pay a fee before chopping the tree down. Residents of Giriraj society agreed to do so as it could pose a threat to those living there.

Shah, along with the MLA was not convinced that the tree needs to be chopped down. Finally BMC officials settled for cutting down 20 feet of the tree. Shah then found out that she can straighten the tree by providing it support and the entire exercise would cost her around Rs 15,000. She managed to collect the money from the residents of Giriraj Society and Ambuj House.

“It takes several years to grow a tree. Cutting down a living tree has become a common practice in the city. When I came to know about it, I convinced my family to save the tree but was clueless as to how I would do so. Thankfully I contacted the right people at the right time, or else the tree could have been vanished in a day,” Shah said.

She added that she was worried about the large number of trees being cut and the lack of proper regulation by the BMC. The tree has now been secured with the help of ropes and it no longer poses a danger to the residents.