Mature trees felled in Bogor

BOGOR (JP): At least 15 mature trees out of a total of 2,800 unsafe trees inside the town have been felled to avoid them causing injury to passersby and vehicles.

The felled trees were between 15 and 20 years old.

Some of the trees were dead, some were diseased, while some others had been weakened by lightning strikes.

"We had to cut these trees down for sake of public safety. We asked permission from the mayor before felling them," said Hari Harsono, the head of the town's sanitation and parks agency, on Wednesday.

He said the Bogor administration had attempted to save some weakened trees by buttressing the weakened parts with cement.

About 14,000 mature trees, ranging from 15-year-old youngsters to 100-year-old giants, grow inside the town's boundaries.

Hari noted that the town administration would plant 1,200 trees in the town's parks and along its main roads.(21)