Hacked Banyans

In Hong Kong, trees don't last long.

View large image Not because there's something wrong with the environment, but because stupid people are allowed to decide what should happen to them.

And when they do, it's always a disaster.

The environment minister has had a first-hand view of what happens to unprotected trees after 21 banyans had their crowns lopped off outside her Central tower office.

[ ... ]

All that is left of the banyans, planted in an adjacent garden when Citibank Tower was built 13 years ago, is their bare trunks.

A manager of Citibank Plaza Management Office, Ms Mok, said the trees looked "messy". She insisted they would grow into a more appealing "round" shape ...

She brutalised the trees for aesthetics? Her abitrary decision has turned the garden into an ugly collection of sticks.

Ms Mok, who assigned Lai Wah Garden to cut back the four to five-metre trees, said they were a "city eyesore". She insisted they had just been pruned rather than felled which would require a permit from the Lands Department.

"We didn't hack the trees. Don't use this word," she said, refusing to say what qualifications the gardening company had.

If the shoe fits, lady. As adjectives go, hacked is the precise word to use in this instance.

Her comments angered the garden's regulars. "It doesn't make sense. I always had my lunch and drinks under the cooling shade" ...

... "The trees were hurt so severely that it is no different from felling them ..."

In November, 50 trees at the Wu Kai Sha youth camp were hacked to their trunks while more than 200 trees met a similar fate in Tuen Mun in October. On both occasions managers claimed the trees had been trimmed rather than felled.

If that's they way they think, would they be upset if their fingers were sawn off at the joints while getting a manicure?

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