Porvorim site’s last banyan to be moved safely: Govt to HC

Panaji: State govt on Wednesday told the high court it will arrange a joint meeting of stakeholders to ensure that the last banyan tree at Porvorim is translocated in the best manner possible.
When the case came up for hearing on Wednesday, advocate general Devidas Pangam suggested to the court that prior to the translocation, a meeting be held between the translocation agency, the forest department, the PWD, and the petitioner. He said an action plan will be drawn up for the successful translocation of the banyan tree.
Pangam said the translocating agency will be asked about how it plans to go about the process, which will then be discussed with all the departments and the petitioner, and suggestions taken before the tree is translocated.
The division bench comprising justices M S Karnik and Nivedita Mehta told the authorities to ensure the tree is translocated with minimal damage and told the agency not to try to cut costs when it comes to the translocation of the large banyan tree.
Advocate Norma Alvares, representing the petitioner, told the HC that in the case of the fourth banyan tree, the agency had not carried out any preparatory work as it stated that it found its root ball was rotten after translocating it. It would claim the translocation cost from govt nevertheless.
Pangam agreed that the tree shouldn’t have been translocated in the manner it was. Of the six trees, five have been translocated.
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Save holy tree in corridor, Gadkari urged
Panaji: Some concerned residents and Green Brigade members have written to Union minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari seeking written instructions to engineers and officials to redesign the elevated corridor at Porvorim in a bid to save Khapreshwar Devasthan and the adjacent 200-year-old banyan tree.
The residents said the tree is worshipped as sacred.
They said they are shocked that the devasthan and the tree will be sacrificed for the elevated corridor. They said when the temple priest met Gadkari in Delhi on Dec 10, he received an assurance that the temple would be saved. But no alteration in the plan has been noted on the ground, the residents said.
They pointed out that the nearest pier cast is 300m from the temple on the northern side and the nearest pier from the southern side is 500m away. TNN