The INTACH has already undertaken a study on finding old and rare trees that can be included in heritage list, she added.

The civic administration differs with the suggestions made by PTA members. Garden Superintendent Bhanudas Mane said, "Th heritage criteria cannot b made applicable to trees a they are considered living. It i also not possible to conserv trees just because they are old even if they are causing a hin drance to development." He was against the sugges tion of maintaining nests and bird habitats in the urban area saying it will be difficult. "No doubt, birds in urban areas ar disappearing, but it's not be cause of felling of trees. It' mostly due to non-availabilit of food that was earlier found in the agriculture lands surround ing the city," Mane said.

But the administration and environmentalists agree on cutting political interference "The Tree Authority should have equal representation from social forestry depart ment, agriculture university NGOs, retired officers from the garden and forest depart ments and elected represen tatives of the local body to b nominated to the Authority, Balasinorwala said.

An apex body at the state level under Principal Secre tary, Urban Development, to ensure effective implementa tion of the Act has also been proposed, she said.

Pune Tree Officer Balasa heb Jagzap said heavy fine should be imposed for each tree that ought to have been planted but developers had no done, as per norms. "It would motivate public to plant at leas the required number of trees.

The new `tree' Instead of the defined description of the "tree" that was open to interpretation, the proposed definition in the amendment is: "Tree means any perennial woody plant having a main trunk and usually a distinct crown and having girth more that 10 cm and height more than 3 metre."