Residents Protested Dozens of Trees Trimmed to the Ground

Dozens of shade trees that functioned as reforestation on Jalan Outer Ring Road, Rawabuaya Urban Village, Cengkareng Sub-District, West Jakarta, were trimmed to the ground. This trimming triggered residents’ protest and also against the rules which obliged leaving minimal of seven meters trunk.

For any tree trimming, it should leave the rod as high as seven meters. For this case, I will check it soon and if it was illegal, I will punish the guilty persons

This Angsana type tree trimming was occurred along the way of Cengkareng direction towards Puri Kembangan, exactly in front of PT Holcim. The trimming was carried out by four uniformed officers using a chainsaw and an ankle truck to haul the trunks and branches from about 14 trees.

Ironically, the tree trimming was done without leaving any slight tree. Allegedly, the trimming was done without permission from the relevant units since the charged persons did not use a uniform and the dozens of cut trees were still too young, less than 50 centimeters of diameter and less than 10 meters of height.

Trees Planted on Beton River Bank

Musa (40), a security officer of PT Holcim said that the residents strongly object to the trimming of the whole shade trees that is in the green lane due to the age of the tree that is still relatively young and not high. Also, it made the surrounding into a barren environment.

"Along this road (Outer Ring Road), there is a lot of shade trees. And as far as I know, the trimming is done by cutting the leafy and jutting branches that went into the street so that the trees look neat. But, I do not know the reason why these dozens of trees were cut without leaving anything and this is not right," said Musa, Tuesday (4/8).

The Lane of West Jakarta Park Sub-Department Section Head, Kadirun uttered that his party has not known anything about the trimming trees in that location because there was no report from the Parks Section of Cengkareng Sub-District.

Kadirun suspected that the trimming was done illegally. For this reason, it will be checked whether it was true or not. If it is true of there would be procedural errors, he will take immediate action on the guilty persons according to the rules.

"For any tree trimming, it should leave the rod as high as seven meters. For this case, I will check it soon and if it was illegal, I will punish the guilty persons," finished Kadirun.