Activists demand the information be made public to bring transparency to the process and increase citizen participation in tree conservation. In 2018, activist Gopal Jhaveri in Mumbai, discovered that four coconut trees in his area, Borivali, had been poisoned by miscreants to achieve a clear view for an advertisement hoarding. Jhaveri lodged a police complaint against the unnamed offenders. The police investigations failed to make any headway as there was no proof that a tree previously stood at that spot. Jhaveri decided to approach the municipal authorities for evidence. But he realised that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation did not have or share records of individual trees, despite it having done a Geographical Information Systems tree mapping census just the previous year. Who then, has a record of all the trees present in Mumbai city, Jhaveri wondered. Jhaveri suggested to the authorities that the Geographical Information Systems tree mapping data be made public to clamp down on rampant illegal tree cutting. This would enable transparency about tree figures and the ones cut for infrastructural projects.
