Visitors gaze at the newly grown branches on the trees in Patna zoo, which were pruned in 2012 on the request of the Airports Authority of India. Picture by Jai Prakash

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has asked Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park to undertake a fresh round of pruning of trees in the aircraft approach funnel of the airport, prompting the zoo authorities demand money for the oft-repeated assignment.

The AAI made a fresh demand to trim trees on the south-east corner of the zoo following rapid growth of new branches, causing obstruction during landing or take-off of aircraft. The zoo has demanded Rs 10 crore from AAI in lieu of repeated demands of pruning around 600 trees on the zoo premises since 2012.

The biological park authorities claimed that the zoo had suffered substantial loss of green cover because of pruning of trees. They feel AAI should provide funds for undertaking plantation and landscaping measures in other parts of the zoo to maintain its greenery.

“Following repeated insistence from AAI, around 600 trees were pruned in 2012. We keep pruning the branches of trees in the aircraft approach funnel twice a year — before and after monsoon. Thus, the zoo has suffered a substantial loss in green cover for ensuring safe air operations. During a meeting with the AAI officials in the last week, we suggested that the AAI should provide some monetary support for the landscape development in the zoo, which has lost its green cover substantially,” said S. Chandrashekhar, director, Patna zoo.

Sources claimed that the AAI had initially asked the state forests and environment department to pursue the matter at the headquarters level in Delhi. “We were not in agreement with the proposal of AAI to pursue the matter in Delhi. We insisted that the department would give the requisition for funds to the AAI office at Patna airport and they would forward it to their headquarters for further processing,” said Chandrashekhar.

Earlier, expressing strong reservation over tall trees and several other obstacles, including cellphone towers, around Patna airport, Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had held back the operating licence of the airport on June 30, 2012. AAI had issued a notice to airmen (Notam) on August 3 in the same year, reducing the applicable length of the runway to such an extent that only smaller aircraft like ATR and Bombardier CRJ could operate from here.

This move of the AAI was on target. “A total of 594 trees on the Patna zoo premises, considered most critical for operations of aircraft, were pruned within a couple of weeks of the Notam. Another 206 trees up to the height of 3m to 20m on Circular Road, Tailor Road, Strand Road, McDonald Road and Shahid Peer Ali Khan Path were pruned in the third week of July in the same year. Following the removal of various obstacles, the AAI issued another notification on November 28 stating that the runway restrictions would not come into effect till further orders.