ON SUNDAY, Mumbai will have its own Chipko movement.

Residents will hug trees at Haji Ali and tie friendship bands and rakhis to protect them from being uprooted.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is to start its ambitious multi-crore project of widening and beautifying the Haji Ali promenade, which requires uprooting about 84 coconut trees.

The footpath is to be widened from 10 ft to 22 ft and the project is estimated to cost Rs 22 crore.

The BMC's Tree Authority has already given permission for the trees along the 1-km-long stretch to be uprooted for the Haji Ali beautification project.

Of these, 64 will be transplanted and the rest axed.

While the Tree Authority has granted permission, 10 of its members who belong to various NGOs, are spearheading the movement. The Tree Authority has 30 members, 20 corporators and the rest from NGOs.

"The trees will not survive transplantation because of the climatic conditions," said Dr Nilesh Baxi, a Tree Authority member who is also honorary secretary of Society for Improvement of Greenery and Nature. "The Tree Authority claims that they will plant 160 trees instead but the beautification require a elevated cantilever so there will be no depth to plant trees."

"Several residents have come forward to save the trees. Some plan to tie their dupattas and saris to the trees," said Niranjan Shetty, a Tree Authority member from the NGO I Love Mumbai. "Transplantation can never be successful unless it is executed properly. Even the trees along Marine Drive that were transplanted in Oval Maidan have died."

Baxi said: "Anybody can adopt one of these trees as long as they promise to protect it from being axed."

Despite several attempts to contact Additional Municipal Commissioner Manu Kumar Srivastava, who heads the project, he was unavailable for comment.

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