Chandigarh Mayor launches campaign to save termite-hit trees

CHANDIGARH: The campaign for saving trees from termite was attended by more than a dozen tree lovers. For this campaign, Chandigarh Mayor Asha Jaswal along with city-based horticulturist and tree lover, Rahul Mahajan, took a lead and launched a campaign to save the city’s termite-hit trees from Sector 19. “The motive behind this campaign is to involve people into it. It also aims to encourage the government machinery to adopt it like a routine practice. The problem of termite is increasing in Chandigarh. If we want to increase the green cover within the city and save the existing green cover, we should adopt sincere efforts to curb the termite menace,” said Mahajan.

The mayor said the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh has organized a survey and found that there are 1.65 lakh trees in the city looked after by MCC. She said that the horticulture wing of MCC is already putting chlorpyrifos on the termite-hit trees and to remove the dead and dangerous trees. During the survey the MCC found 1,029 dead trees in the city and started the work of eliminating them as they would cause damage to lives and public property as well.

Jaswal informed that she took stock of the status of trees in the city including those in road sides and parks and have instructed the concerned officers to conduct survey and identify the damaged trees hit by termite attack.

She further said that thematic drives including parks, green belts, schools, government buildings, road sides will be planned and proper treatment of trees will be conducted.