Tree Management · Municipal Corporations
Tree Management for Municipal Corporations and Tree Authorities
The Tree Authority sits inside the corporation, which means every felling or transplantation decision it takes is a civic decision that has to be defensible on record from the day it is made.
Screening view on your project, with the category and route named. No obligation.
What this means for municipal corporations
Under the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act 1975, the Tree Authority constituted within the corporation decides applications to fell or transplant, sets compensatory planting, and is required to maintain a census of trees in its area. That places the corporation in an uncomfortable dual role: it is the sanctioning body, and it is also the largest applicant, because its own road, drain, garden and building works remove trees. Decisions made in that position attract challenge, and challenges are decided on the quality of the record: the enumeration, the justification, the valuation, and what actually happened to the trees afterwards.
How KIPL runs it
KIPL prepares that record: geo-referenced tree census, species and girth data, condition assessment, transplantation feasibility, and the case file that accompanies a proposal to the Authority. Where transplantation is directed, we treat post-transplant survival as the deliverable rather than the lifting, because the number that gets asked for later is how many survived and where they now stand. The common failure is a felling permission granted on a sketch enumeration, with compensatory planting numbers that no one subsequently tracks to a plantable site.
- Trees Act 1975
The Tree Authority's own statutory duties
The Act requires the Authority to maintain a census of trees in its area and to decide felling applications with compensatory planting conditions. Both duties fail without survey data.
- Amendment of 2021
Heritage trees and proportionate compensation
The 2021 amendment introduced the heritage tree category and a stronger link between the age of a tree felled and the compensatory planting required, with certain cases going up to the State level. Age and girth evidence therefore has to be on the file.
The corporation is applicant and regulator at once
Civic works generate most felling applications in a city. Where the same body sanctions and applies, the record has to be more complete than a private applicant's, because that conflict is the first thing a challenge points to.
What you receive
Written for municipal corporations, not adapted from a template.
- 01Geo-referenced tree census with species, girth, height, health and ownership boundary
- 02Tree valuation and enumeration report in the format the Tree Authority requires
- 03Transplantation feasibility assessment, tree by tree, with the receiving site identified
- 04Case file for felling or transplantation proposals, with justification and alternatives considered
- 05Compensatory plantation plan tied to identified, available municipal land
- 06Post-transplant survival monitoring and reporting against the permission conditions
Questions from municipal corporations
What municipal corporations ask before appointing us.
Answered against the regulation as it stands, not as a sales pitch. If your situation is not here, ask us directly.
Ask a question →Who grants permission to fell a tree inside a municipal corporation area?
The Tree Authority constituted under the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act 1975 for that urban area. The application, enumeration and justification go to the Authority, which decides and attaches conditions, typically including compensatory planting. Felling without that permission is an offence under the Act.
What does the corporation have to do when it is itself the applicant?
The same process, documented better. A civic department applying to its own Tree Authority should carry a complete enumeration, a stated justification, the alternatives considered, and a compensatory planting proposal tied to identified land. The dual role is not a defect in itself, but a thin file in that situation invites the inference that the decision was pre-decided.
What is a heritage tree and why does it change the process?
The 2021 amendment to the Act introduced a heritage tree category based on the age of the tree, with additional protection and a route to a higher authority for certain proposals. It also strengthened the link between the age of the tree removed and the compensatory planting required. Establishing the age and girth of each tree on the file therefore has direct consequences for what the permission will cost.
How often should a tree census be updated?
The Act places a continuing census duty on the Tree Authority, and in practice a census that is not maintained becomes unusable within a few years because of felling, growth and new planting. A geo-referenced census that is updated as permissions are executed keeps the record live, which is what allows the Authority to answer both individual queries and aggregate canopy questions.
Is transplantation actually a solution or a formality?
It depends entirely on species, age, condition, the pre-transplant preparation and the receiving site. Some trees transplant reliably and some do not, and a permission that directs transplantation without a feasibility assessment or a named receiving site usually results in loss. We assess it tree by tree and report survival afterwards, since survival is the only meaningful measure of whether the condition was met.
What happens to compensatory planting that is ordered but never executed?
It becomes a liability on the corporation's record, and a recurring finding when the position is aggregated. Compensatory planting conditions accumulate across permissions, and unless each is tied at the time of sanction to identified, available land with a maintenance obligation, the arithmetic of trees ordered versus trees planted diverges and cannot be reconciled later.
Stage by stage
How tree management actually runs, step by step.
Also for municipal corporations
The rest of the environmental brief for this sector.
Relevant proof
MCGM GARDEN DEVELOPMENT- MIYAWAKI PLANTATION
Miyawaki dense forestation across 27 locations in 7 wards using native species, delivered under the municipal greening programme.
- Area
- ~74,000 m²
- Trees
- ≈1,10,000
- CO₂ (est.)
- 2,052 t
Where we do this
Tree Management for municipal corporations, city by city.
Other sectors
Who else we run tree management for.
Next step
Tell us the project, and we will tell you the category and the route.
Screening is the cheapest stage to get right and the most expensive to get wrong. We will say plainly what tree management your municipal corporations project needs, and what it does not.
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