[Photos] Outrage As Hanoi Begins To Uproot 6,700 Trees

On Wednesday morning, Hanoi launched its plan to cut down more than a quarter of the trees that line the city's streets. Both experts and the public have taken to the press and social media to express their outrage over the removals and the department in charge of the project has been ordered by the city's municipal administration to revise it.

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Under the US$3.4 million landscaping plan, 6,700 trees on 190 of Hanoi's streets will be felled and replaced, reports Thanh Nien.

The city’s construction department said that many of the capital’s 29,600 trees are dying, posing safety risks to drivers during the rainy season. The trees currently facing their demise either fit into this category or stand in the way of infrastructure projects. Workers are planting new trees in the plots where their older brothers have just been uprooted.

Despite this, many Hanoians have called on city authorities to revise their “reckless” plan as some of the trees are over one hundred years old and are in good health.

A Facebook group, “6,700 people for 6,700 trees,” has been created to protest the plan and claims famous scholars, researchers and architects as backers. The page currently has over 36,000 likes.

Some, like Tran Huy Anh of the Vietnam Architects Association, have had a chance to review the 23-page project plan and came away unconvinced.

“For each tree to be chopped down, they must give full details: how it was planted, where it is and what condition is it in. Then they have to publicize the information,” he told the paper. 

“It is excruciating to see thousands of trees being felled at the same time. How many trees can we replant in one year? And once planted, after how many years can we have the shade again?," added Anh. 

Other experts, such as Giang Quan, a researcher who specializes in Hanoi culture, said that the city can’t afford to loose any more of its green canopy. “Hanoi’s per capita green space area is very low, at less than one square meter per person,” said Quan.

Like Hanoi, Saigon is also in the midst uprooting old trees in the name of development, removing hundreds of trees to make way for new metro stations.

[Photo via VN Express]