Firm to revise beautification plan to restore greenery at Theatre Rd park
Times of India | 26 November 2025
Kolkata: The landscape consultancy firm appointed by a private organisation to ‘beautify' McPherson Square has decided to tweak the original plan to make way for more greenery.
The decision comes after widespread criticism for cutting down trees and replacing large areas of green cover with concrete. To construct a pathway around the park's inner periphery, nearly a dozen fully grown trees were axed. Several more smaller trees and shrubs were cut. It also denuded a circular patch of green to construct an ornamental fountain.
On Tuesday, representatives of the firm told KMC member mayor-in-council (parks and gardens) Debashis Kumar that they would revise the plan to enhance the green space at the park near the Theatre Road-Loudon Street intersection, also known as Maharana Pratap Udyan. Kumar hauled them up for axing trees without permission and demanded to know what they would do to compensate for the loss.
Sources said the firm's officials while admitting that the trees had been cut erroneously, said they would do the needful to replenish the garden. To begin with, the firm plans to plant 25 trees, each at least 12 ft tall, that will not only grow into fully grown trees faster but will also have a much higher survival rate than saplings. In addition, saplings and shrubs will be planted along the pathway.
TOI had on Tuesday reported how the parks department wanted the agency concerned to plant more trees and add to the park's greenery. Speaking to TOI after the meeting, Kumar said it was heartening that the company engaged to beautify the park acknowledged its mistake and offered to take corrective measures.
"From henceforth, the beautification of McPherson Square will be carried out under the watch of the civic department. Any lapse on their part will be dealt with promptly," said Kumar.
Following Tuesday's meeting, permission has been granted to resume work at the park but with the condition that it should be carried out with extreme caution and no trees should be harmed, even accidentally. Green activist group PUBLIC, which filed a police complaint following the axing of trees at the park and subsequently filed an RTI seeking details of the agreement to transfer the park's development and upkeep to a private organisation, said it would follow the developments and hoped there would be no further transgression that led to the loss of green cover at the park.
"There are several issues that still need to be resolved including the handover of public parks to private agencies and regular monitoring to ensure that trees that are public assets are not endangered. We will continue to keep an eye on the park and hope that the agency will now stick to its promise of reducing concrete," said PUBLIC co-founder Pradeep Kakkar.
A KMC parks department official said on Tuesday that a team of botanists will be asked to keep a watch on the beautification project and if need be, share technical knowledge about transplantation with the agency concerned to ensure the transplanted trees survive.