Protests by Rabindra Sarobar regulars, who have also signed a petition, have prompted the authorities to stop felling of dead trees at the Lakes.
The protesters have been arguing that dead trees play host to micro-organisms and smaller trees, which will perish once they are chopped off.
Close to 150 people who visit the Lakes regularly have signed a petition - to be sent to the Calcutta Improvement Trust (CIT), the custodian of the water body and the surrounding greens - protesting the felling of dead trees.
Some of them have also called CIT officials, stressing the need for preserving the dead trees.
On Saturday morning, around 50 people had sat in protest near a dead tree.
"The cutting of dead trees has been put on hold after the protests. A final decision will be taken later," a CIT engineer said.
The authorities had started felling dead trees last week. Three shirish trees, among the nine identified for felling, have been chopped off. The trunks of the three trees were between 3ft and 4.5ft in diameter.
CIT sources said the decision to cut the dead trees was taken after the agency had in May received a letter signed by 80 people saying branches of such trees were falling on walkers and injuring them.
CIT got in touch with the forest department, which inspected the Lakes and identified the nine dead trees to be cut. A tender was floated and a contractor hired last week.
Another group of walkers, however, was up in arms against the move. "One of our friends saw a tree being felled. He immediately posted the information on our WhatsApp group and the members soon decided to do something to get the felling of trees stopped," said Sanchita Das, a resident of Rashbehari Avenue.
What angered the walkers was that one of the dead trees that was being chopped off had creepers growing all around it. "The authorities should have only cut the branches if they were creating problems and posing a threat to walkers. The trunks should not have been uprooted to save micro-organisms and creepers," a walker said.
Experts echoed the walkers' views about the usefulness of dead trees. "The dead trees are a source of food and habitat for many living organisms. Multiple microbes depend on its roots for nutrition," said Souruyadeep Mukherjee, who teaches life sciences at Presidency University.
In villages, he pointed out, a dead tree is not cut. "A tree grows after drawing nutrition from the soil. Even after its death some of the nutrition remains in the branches and trunks. The branches should be allowed to fall on their own because that will help return the residual nutrition back to the soil. This completes the nutrient cycle," Mukherjee said.
